Read a good history book lately...?

[pesoto74]

I saw it.  I was glad I could record it because it seems like half of the time was taken up with fund raising.  To me it seemed like a competently done Ken Burns style of presenting the standard Lincoln story.  Nothing ground breaking, but not unpleasant to watch.

[andmac]

I thought it was good.  The breaks did get a bit long, and I wish Frakes had talked more in the breaks rather than acknowledging all of his friends and relatives who were pledging money to WILL.  Noticable lack of mention of Danville and Lamon (but then again, many of the other county seats in the district were not mentioned).  Though they handled some things very well, and it was an interesting cross section of trial cases they used for examples.

A few of us in the history area are going to meet on the 11th for an early lunch at the Deluxe and then over to the site of the old Wabash station to recognize Lincoln's last passage through Ol Vermilion in 1861(it is the 158 aniversary). Then we are running up to State Line where he changed trains.

[andmac]

The documentary Looking For Lincoln with Henry Louis Gates Jr was very good.  I was happy to hear many of the historians being interviewed repeat the concept that you can't judge 19th Century people by 21st Century Standards.  I also liked when Doris Goodwin told Gates that it is not Abe's fault that people made him into a myth, so don't get mad at Lincoln because he was a politican and a 19th century white male (which Gates then agreeded with).  Using Fredrick Douglass to show a contempary African-American views on Lincoln was also very good....

I will admit I am about Lincolned out at this point....but we still have the 150th of his election as president and the whole Sesquicentennial of the Civil War ahead of us.

[Guardian Angel]

I was glad that Ms Gates stood up for Lincoln too.  She seemed very adamant about it.

[andmac]

Check out:

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5490

[Guardian Angel]

Thanks for posting that link.  It was interesting.