The Real Lincon: A Review

I recently finished reading The Real Lincoln written by Thomas DiLorenzo. I thought it was so unique and insightful that I wanted to let everyone know about it. If all your knowledge about Abraham Lincoln was learned in a public school then this book will be like taking a step through the looking glass. The Lincoln DiLorenzo introduces us to is not the “honest Abe” or the “Great Emancipator” that has been sold to us by the politically correct establishment.

This book is well-documented and draws heavily (almost exclusively) on sources from the period in which Lincoln lived and from America’s founding era. DiLorenzo quotes liberally from politicians, newspapers, the constitution, the founding fathers, prominent historians of the period, and Lincoln himself. It might seem at first that the author merely has some personal agenda against Lincoln because he implies that Lincoln held racist and white supremacist views. However, this is not done in a malicious or slanderous way, but is simply a tool used to explode the myths that Abe was an abolitionist and that the civil war was fought over slavery.

The book discusses Lincoln’s personal views and his political agenda and ambitions. It also covers extensively the subject of secession with regards to its constitutionality and how the topic was viewed by those in both the North and South. It explains what the major causes of the war were, how the war was waged and what the long term consequences of Lincoln’s war are. In examining slavery, the author covers the prospect of peaceful abolition (which was how virtually every other country rid itself of slavery,) and the ways in which emancipation was used as a political tool to help win the war after it had begun. I especially enjoyed the sections on reconstruction and how it poisoned race relations in the south, impoverished the entire region for over a decade, and solidified centralized rule throughout the union.

Whether or not you end up agreeing with the author’s assertions and conclusions, this book is well worth reading and I highly recommend it. It is the most thorough and in-depth attempt that I have encountered to cut through all the pseudo-history and myth building literature that surrounds one of America’s most famous politicians. For those interested in understanding how America has been transformed from its constitutionally based founding into the centralized federal empire we have today, it is a flash of light in the darkness.

(For a similar, though not nearly as thorough account of the real reasons behind the civil war I would also recommend Those Dirty Rotten Taxes by Charles Adams.)