David Von Drehle: "Rise to Greatness"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-01-21/david-von-drehle-rise-greatness
The first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before President Abraham Lincoln's cabinet.
Image courtesy Henry Holt and Co.
January 1, 1862, was the beginning of a perilous year for President Abraham Lincoln and the nation. The Civil War was in its ninth month. The Treasury Department was broke. The War Department was a corrupt shambles. Foreign governments threatened to side with the Confederacy. Lincoln was under pressure from Congress, his generals, his cabinet, and abolitionists. Even his wife presented him with considerable challenges. Historian David Von Drehle explains how Lincoln rose to greatness in the next twelve months by turning the tide of war in the Union’s favor, defining the role of commander-in-chief, establishing a blueprint for modern America and gaining support for the Emancipation Proclamation.
Guests
David Von Drehle
author of "Triangle" and editor-at-large at Time magazine.
Read An Excerpt
Excerpt from "Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year" by David Von Drehle. Copyright 2012 by David Von Drehle. Reprinted here by permission of Henry Holt and Co. All rights reserved.
Comments
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Good program. What we learn in standard history about Lincoln surely is not the entire story. We need to read this book and also Michael Burlingame's. The attempts to compare Obama with Lincoln are certainly a stretch.
Thanks for this great segment, and for reminding me that Abraham Lincoln really was a remarkable man. I especially appreciated mention to Frederick Douglass' comment that Abraham Lincoln was the only white man he ever met who didn't make him feel aware of his race--that he saw the man beyond the color. It seems like many modern historians want to paint Lincoln as racist, so this was a refreshing change!
Also, I would have liked to know more about Lincoln's transition growing up. How did he transform from the filthy child in rags to the lawyer? Where did he find the strength/courage to leave that past behind?
This was a great segment! I was wondering if the author was able to find any new information on Lincoln's childhood as not much is known about it to date. Also a great reminder that the Republicans of Lincoln's time were more along the lines of today's Democrats.
Thanks Ms. Rehm for another great show. When a racist listener called in accusing Lincoln of tyranny for not letting the Southern states secede, I first thought that the author gave a great reply ("...it wouldn't have ended there, decades of war would have ensued over the fight for control over the west, Lincoln saw the potential for American greatness and did not want the "Europeazation" of America...). But then I thought that these kind of people who til this day think that slavery wasn't such a big deal, had its good sides, etc., etc. do not acknowledge calibrated, reasonable arguments. You need to throw it in their face: Slavery was EVIL and Lincoln knew that America would not succeed as an EVIL nation. Or: self determination without equality equals tyranny of the privileged. Reading in Colin Woodard's book and wikipedia about it, it probably took the attack on Ford Sumter to get public opinion on Lincoln's side and he probably did his part to provoke the South to commit it.
The South was never properly punished for their treason. In fact the liberal politics of Lincoln allowed the formation of most of the hate groups that still plague us today. Groups like the KKK and the NRA were`spawned from the Southern hatred post civil war. They still believe even today,if you can`t win elections at the polls,label the government evil,and they call for secession and bloodshed.
My local NPR station has preempted the show to cover the inauguration, even though nothing is changing and there is no news to report. The swearing in and the speech are all that is necessary and even that is not breaking news.
Efforts to add Ronald Reagan to coins, currency, and Mount Rushmore are a bigger stretch. Every President gets compared to all his/her predecessors.......it's a media "thing".
I see the show is a rebroadcast, so I have probably heard it already.
Pray that complete Corporate Globalism does not succeed.
Abe Lincoln was a corporate lawyer nominated in a smoke-filled room by special interests. Like our better citizens today he struggled choosing lesser evils over greater evils. The South was poorer, smaller and more poorly armed. The Civil War was horrifically profitable for a tiny commercial minority, just as Empire is now. Lincoln remarked on observing this that corporations must be curbed to preserve the Nation. Once weapons of mass killing were employed the South was quickly retired. What was not retired was Slavery. It merely morphed into the wage drudgery and debt peonage most of us currently suffer. Lincoln had to leave early because he saw too far into the future, and the system that eliminates citizens like him is now automatic and lightning fast. Obama flushes a bowl of whistleblowers and critics every morning. They forces of evil continue to drone around, circling like buzzards.
Excellent guest. The more I learn about Lincoln, the more I admire him. I wonder what sort of politician he would be today.
There were a couple of callers who brought up interesting questions, one regarding the right of states to secede, the other about Lincoln's broadened use of executive power. Mr. Von Drehle pointed out that there would have been war even if the South were allowed to secede, and I agree. I was reminded of the recent overtures from Texas to secede, and if we don't allow them to go we may be at war again. :-)
Given the extreme circumstances - a Civil War - Lincoln's expansion of executive power is understandable, though in the wrong hands and for the wrong reasons it can certainly threaten our constitutional republic.
One wonders how anyone could read this and still have such an high opinion of this mythical saint. I am especially surprised by the first reader who compared the president in an unfavorable light with this unqualified man-of-war. The only reason that i would go along with any comparison is that i think Lincoln as bigoted as he was would have been offended by it. Even the author at the end of the interview had trouble keeping the Lincoln myth on its ivory, celestial tower. I think that it's very important to have truth in history and Lincoln was the biggest lie that was ever created--perhaps in the history of any country. There are only three reasons why he is considered so great even while describing what he did during his term. First and foremost was because he was killed--sort of a given of course. The great cost of that terrible war--always ignoring his part in starting it and the bloody incompetent pursuit of it. And the idea that he freed the slaves...which of course didn't really happen until the heroic work of Rev. King and the civil rights movement. Up until then people were held in some sort of bondage--call 'Jim Crow' or serfdom or apartheid--take your pick. The war was a useless endeavor that only spread the suffering. Lincoln himself while he probably did not approve of the institution of 'slavery', he was first and foremost an astute politician--not exactly a plus by modern standards--and would have used it for other purposes if he thought he could benefit from it. By current standards he was undoubtedly a racist and was quoted as having used the 'N...' word before he became president. It is long past the time when the inaccuracy of the interpretation of this part of our not so heroic history should be corrected so that perhaps the future can learn from the truly horrible mistakes of the past.