Abraham Lincoln lived in the White House from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Or did he? In fact, he spent most of the summer months of 1862 through 1864 – about a quarter of his presidency – living in the Soldier’s Home. Author Elizabeth Smith Brownstein gives us a fascinating, as well as delightful, look at Lincoln’s Other White House.
The book unfolds in two parts. The first part groups three chapters into a sort of preamble as Lincoln’s “long journey to the Soldier’s Home.” Here we find the history of the airy cottage originally belonging to the Riggs banking family but now transformed into a home for aging veterans. We also get a sense for why Lincoln was eager to escape to the home, both from the pressures of constant office seekers and from the diseases and smells permeating the capitol during the steamy summer months.
The second part is split into 15 chapters exploring a variety of issues and people Lincoln dealt with as the war raged outside his doors. Not all of the action takes place at the Soldier’s Home, but the home life is delicately interwoven throughout the stories. Brownstein brings us into the complexities of the Lincoln marriage, his interactions with various cabinet members and Generals, and the importance of his time at the Soldier’s Home during the development of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Along with discussions of Lincoln’s views on freedom and his interest in the tools of war are more unique insights. We see some of the poems on slavery that rose from the pens of such icons as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Walt Whitman. An occasional poet himself, no doubt Lincoln appreciated their ways with words. We also get a sense of Lincoln’s favorite storytellers, including the inimitable characters Petroleum V. Nasby, Artemus Ward, and Orpheus C. Kerr (a play on “office seeker”).
Brownstein’s writing is crisp and light. She covers a lot of territory as she hops in and out of key events and interrelationships during Lincoln’s time at the Soldier’s Home. I found it to be a delightful book indeed, and I highly recommend it to readers.
[Note: I read this book after Elizabeth Brownstein noticed that I had reviewed Matthew Pinsker’s book on the soldier’s home. I recommend both books as they provide different perspectives on Lincoln and the importance of his time there.]
David J. Kent is an avid Lincolnophile and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.
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Put two hundred Abraham Lincoln scholars and followers in a room and what do you get? On March 22, 2014 you get the 17th Abraham Lincoln Institute Annual Symposium highlighting the latest in Lincoln scholarship. The day-long symposium featured five speakers discussing their latest books, and the audience included some of the biggest names in the field.
This 1992 book is somewhat uneven and could have used some better editing, but it does provide some excellent insights into Abraham Lincoln’s rhetorical style. The author, Lois J. Einhorn, was an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at the State University of New York.
This book, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America’s Most Reviled President, is a rather extraordinary look at Abraham Lincoln. And a remarkably pleasant surprise given the uncustomary view of Lincoln, as well as the providence of the author. Larry Tagg is not whom you might expect to be writing a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Some will recognize the name from the music world and Tagg’s band Bourgeois Tagg, or from his many years touring with Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, and opening for Robert Palmer, Belinda Carlisle and others. Now a high school English and drama teacher in California, Tagg surprises the reader with his deep understanding of Lincoln and his times. And he tackles an often overlooked and difficult facet of how Lincoln was viewed by contemporaries.
When most people think of Abraham Lincoln, they think of him toiling away in the White House, occasionally making his way to the adjoining War Department to check telegraph news from the front. Few know that Lincoln and his family actually spent much of the summers of 1862, 1863 and 1964 living at the “Soldier’s Home” and commuting daily to the White House.
It seems like January 2013 was a blink away, but somehow an entire year has passed and that blink away is now January 2014. But oh what a year it was. A year of transitions, a year of excitement, and even a year with some major anxieties. But it is a year I will always remember – the year of Tesla.
There are over 15,000 books that have been written about Abraham Lincoln. At least that’s the number that is bandied about whenever someone talks about Lincoln books. Whether that number includes books about the Civil War or just books focused on Lincoln himself is also in question. In any case, I have over 800 titles, with more than 95% specific to the man, not the war.
