The Fire of Genius in the Civil War Monitor Magazine

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius has been reviewed several times, including in Civil War Times, but there was recently a new one in the Civil War Monitor magazine. Written by Jonathan Tracey, co-editor of Civil War Monuments and Memory with Chris Mackowski, the review is very positive.

Civil War Monitor screenshot

Tracey notes:

“Kent, who has authored books on Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, applies his technological history lens to Abraham Lincoln in this book. Part biography and part history of innovation, Kent moves chronologically through Lincoln’s life following the threads of technology and science.”

And,

“Throughout the book, Kent repeatedly supplies strong evidence that Lincoln was a thoughtful and curious man who defied stereotypes. He was aware of advancement in fields as diverse as soil sciences, ship design, railroads, and military weapons, and he used this information in his professional and political careers.”

You can read the entire review online.

The Civil War Times review can be found in the Spring 2023 issue (page 67).

This week also featured comments from me in a Salon article written by Matt Rozsa. He explored the incident in which Lincoln says he sewed the eyes of hogs shut to get them on the flatboat (which didn’t work). Rozsa quoted me substantively, along with Harold Holzer and the president of PETA. You can read that article online at: https://www.salon.com/2023/06/04/abraham-lincoln-pig-torture-animal-cruelty-compassion/

Rozsa had quoted me last year in an article about Lincoln’s patent: https://www.salon.com/2022/08/27/abraham-lincoln-master-inventor-the-true-story-of-the-only-to-ever-patent-an-invention/

More past events and media mentions can be found on my media page.

[Screenshot of Civil War Monitor review online]

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Leadership Practices in the Sciences

Healthy LandsSure, I write a lot about Abraham Lincoln these days, but for more than thirty years I was a practicing scientist. One area of sciences that was severely lacking was leadership. I’m lucky enough to be related to an expert on leadership in the sciences, and he has a new book out that I want to highlight for all my science colleagues.

Leadership Practices for Healthy Lands by Don Kent, Ph.D. is the book I wish many of my colleagues had available during my career. As the title suggests, this book is a practical manual for how to ensure good decision-making that applies to, but goes beyond, the idea of healthy lands – lands that retain their inherent hydrological, geological, biological, and chemical functions. This is a book about leadership; what it is, how to develop it, how to execute it, and how to refine it to succeed in the management of groups and organizations. The work applies to retaining, or reclaiming, healthy lands, but also would apply to other scientific efforts, and even to other significant business management endeavors.

The book is incredibly well-written and comprehensive. It’s clear that significant research and experience went into its making. Readers will find background on leadership theory, discovering your purpose, and embracing change, but also practical guidance on how to build trust, promote change, and focus on the benefits of shared vision. In essence, this a master course on leadership.

Don knows a thing or ten about leadership. He was President and CEO of the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, was the Chief Strategy Officer and Director at NatureServe, a Natural Heritage Administrator for the State of New Hampshire, and a long time Executive Director of nonprofit institutions, not to mention technical consultancies and Walt Disney’s Imagineering group. He’s considered a leader in wetlands and land management, having consulted and taught clients worldwide. His earlier book, Applied Wetlands Science and Technology, to which I was privileged to contribute a chapter, was such a huge bestseller that the publisher asked him to expand and update it for a second edition.

I encourage all my science colleagues to check out Leadership Practices for Healthy Lands. You can learn more about the book and the author on his website at HealthyLands.Org.

 

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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John Quincy Adams Died in Lincoln’s Presence – A Book About Both

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. What many people do not know is that after his presidency he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served for 18 more years. He died on February 23, 1848 on the House floor during Abraham Lincoln’s one term as a US Congressman. Lincoln served on Adams’s funeral committee.

Fred Kaplan is known for his biographies, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer and John Quincy Adams, American Visionary, as well as biographies of Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Henry James, and others. His most recent book is called Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War. I recently read Lincoln and the Abolitionists and provide the following review, also posted on Goodreads.

Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War by Fred Kaplan (Harpercollins, 2017, 357 pp)

As a Lincoln scholar, this was a tough book to read for a variety of reasons. Kaplan is obviously enamored of John Quincy Adams, the subject of one of his previous biographies. The book contrasts Adams’s attitudes and actions regarding slavery with Lincoln’s, finding Lincoln sorely lacking because he wasn’t an active abolitionist. The author also seems to channel Wendell Phillips, the northern abolitionist that mirrored the extremism of the southern pro-slavery firebrands. Phillips also happens to be one of Lincoln’s greatest critics, and at times it appears Kaplan is Phillips in his treatment of Lincoln.

Much of the first half of the book focuses on John Quincy Adams, while the latter half focuses on Abraham Lincoln. This is entirely appropriate as the two are found in two different eras of political strife, with Adams literally dying in the House chambers while Lincoln likely sat in the back of the same room as a single-term Congressman. Adams likely listened to Lincoln’s extended speechifying in the House during his “spot” resolution discussions, which attacked President Polk’s decision to invade Mexico. Adams would have agreed with Lincoln’s views, including the argument that the rationale for the Mexican War was to gain territory in which to expand slavery.

Kaplan’s writing almost deifies Adams’s contribution to the abolition debate, not the least of which included pressuring despite the “gag rule” that forbade even the discussion of how to end slavery. In contrast, Kaplan barely gives Lincoln credit for any contribution to the end of slavery. Kaplan paints Lincoln as “an anti-slavery moralist who believed in an exclusively white America” and Adams as “an antislavery activist who had no doubt the US would become a multiracial nation.” He threads this rather tenuous premise throughout the narrative, using it repeatedly to drive his opinion that Lincoln was a reluctant emancipator who did nothing until he was pushed to do so by others and by circumstances. He carries this premise and repeats it ad nauseam throughout the book. Lincoln is to blame, in Kaplan’s opinion, for the war, for slavery continuing, and for taking the chance that the South might come back into the Union after the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, thus potentially returning the Union to a pre-war status, i.e., with slavery intact.

There is certainly room for debate on the various issues discussed, but while Kaplan says in his preface that the book honors both Adams and Lincoln, he clearly honors one and holds back credit for the other. The perspective is worth reading, but should not be taken at face value; additional knowledge of events must also be brought in to make the discussion more fact-based.

Regarding fact, Kaplan makes many errors of fact, from minor (Lincoln’s first inaugural was on March 4, 1861, not March 6) to horrendous (he discusses for several pages that Tennessee had not left the Union [It did]). He also claims “Confederates had been driven out of Louisiana early in the war” which isn’t true; only part of Louisiana returned to Union hands. He discusses in depth how Lincoln actively replaced Hamlin with Johnson, which is overstating the case tremendously as Lincoln’s role was likely very limited. He states that Lincoln “called Hannibal Hamlin to Springfield” and told him he wanted him as a running mate, which isn’t true. Lincoln didn’t meet Hamlin until after the two of them had been separately nominated at the Republican convention in Chicago (where neither of them was present). Other errors are laced throughout the book.

Which is a bit confusing because otherwise the book is well researched and documented. Likely Kaplan had a greater understanding of Adams because of his previous biography, but he also wrote a The Biography of a Writer about Lincoln, so the errors are a mystery. The organization of the book also makes it a tough read. Kaplan hops around in time and space, not only from page to page but paragraph to paragraph. This makes it sometimes difficult to follow the thought processes. At one point, for example, he starts to talk about the Matson case, in which Lincoln co-counseled with noted racist (and family friend) Usher Linder on the side of a man trying to retain his slaves. But after a few lines indicating he would discuss it, he veers off on a tangent, then returns to it a few pages later, only to give a quick introduction and veer off again before finally coming back to the case several pages down the road.

So would I recommend the book? Yes, and no. I do think he provides some interesting perspectives and good background, especially about John Quincy Adams, Wendell Phillips, and a cast of lesser known characters important to the slavery discussion. But I would caution that prior to digging in, readers should have a broader understanding of Lincoln’s attitudes and roles, and be careful of significant errors of fact. As I know less about Adams I can’t determine if there are errors or premise conflicts in the sections dealing with him. But readers without a good understanding of Lincoln should be wary of taking the ideas presented in the book at face value. Those with knowledge might find that knowledge challenged, though not always correctly or persuasively.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Nikola Tesla and Science Fiction

Nikola Tesla once suggested that “the possibility of beckoning Martians was the extreme application of [my] principle of propagation of electric waves.” While dropping the “talking with planets” idea once he returned to New York from Colorado Springs, he did maintain a belief that “there would be no insurmountable obstacle in constructing a machine capable of conveying a message to Mars, nor would there be any great difficulty in recording signals transmitted to us by the inhabitants of that planet.” Assuming, Tesla noted, that “they be skilled electricians.”

Interest in the theory was heightened by a Margaret Storm book called Return of the Dove. Later, another book by Arthur Matthews (Wall of Light: Nikola Tesla and the Venusian Spaceship) suggested that Tesla not only talked with extraterrestrials—he was one! Science and science fiction publisher Hugo Gernsback often used his friend Tesla’s ideas as seeds for science fiction stories, thus forever linking Tesla’s name with science fiction.

Which gets me to two new science fiction books wherein Nikola Tesla battles extraterrestrials invading the Earth. Author L. Woodswalker has taken many aspects of Tesla’s real life and woven them into two thrilling science fiction books that I highly recommend. Click on the book titles to get to the Amazon pages. Here are my reviews on Goodreads:

Tesla's Signal

 

 

Tesla’s Signal

Marvelous science fiction. L. Woodswalker authors a cleverly written exploration of alien invasion that masterly weaves real history with fantasy and surreality in a series of intricately woven story lines. Those who are familiar with Nikola Tesla will recognize the deft intertwining of Tesla’s real inventions, quirks, and personality traits with extrapolations to what they have become in the minds of many a Tesla aficionado. Those unfamiliar with Tesla will still find themselves rabidly engaged in the requisite alien races, the fight between good and evil, and some surprising romantic tension spliced into exciting action. All together here are the makings of a great SF novel. Well done!

 

 

Tesla’s Frequency

I loved this book even more than the first one (Tesla’s Signal). A must-read for anyone interested in Tesla and/or historical science fiction. L. Woodswalker once again constructs a marvelous story line, deep and interesting characters, and beautifully written dialogue. Woodswalker deftly weaves reality (Tesla’s actual inventions, Hitler’s actual plans) with fantasy (rumors of Tesla inventions that never came to fruition, fictional characters) and science fiction (space aliens). The resulting fast-paced, exciting ride pitting good versus evil keeps the pages turning as the famous inventor, his white pigeon side-kick, and an intriguing young girl battle the bad guys to save the world from both Hitler and aliens.

Great writing, great story, and Nikola Tesla. What more could you ask for? I highly recommend both this book and Woodswalker’s earlier Tesla thriller, Tesla’s Signal.

David J. Kent is and avid traveler. His most recent book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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In Honor of Earth Day – Earth: The Operators’ Manual by Richard B. Alley

Earth Operators ManualFor Earth Day – Earth: The Operators’ Manual by Richard B. Alley (A Book Review)

Richard Alley is a climate scientist. While many may not have heard of him before, some will have seen him give a demonstration of the Earth’s tilt (and its relationship to climate change) in a House hearing in 2014. Using his head, with his bald spot representing the North Pole, Alley schooled Republican Rep. Rohrabacher on historical climate science. Alley uses the same humor and adroitness of analogy in Earth: The Operators’ Manual to give us an engaging look at our planet, the changes that are occurring, and options for moving forward.

The book is a companion to a PBS documentary. The book is divided in to three parts totaling 24 chapters. The first part gives us a glimpse at how we have used energy over the millennia, how we have impacted the planet, and how we have moved from “peak trees” to “peak whale oil” to eventually (or even already), “peak fossil fuels.” The second part gives us a dozen chapters that make it clear that human activity is changing our climate. The third part focuses on options for non-fossil fuel energy sources.

Throughout, Alley’s whimsical side shows through, as does the ease at which he can communicate the science with apt analogies that all of us can understand. Who knew that climate was a bit like watching a kindergarten soccer game? With climate, many factors appear to be kicking around randomly but then, eventually, there seems to be an order to the chaos. As Alley takes us through the science it becomes undeniably clear that we are warming our planet.

While the first two sections may be the most entertaining, the final section is probably the most important part of the book. Alley examines “the road to ten billion smiling people,” that is, the options we have to providing energy for our ever-growing global population. Starting with toilets (I kid you not), he discusses the smart grid, solar and wind solutions, and pretty much everything else from hydroelectric to nuclear to geo-engineering. Some seem more promising than others, and Alley largely believes that some combination of renewable energy sources are the likely future.

Overall, I found the book interesting and definitely informative. It’s a worthy read for anyone interested in the topic.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in July 2016.

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[Earth]

Book Review – Lincoln Inc.: Selling the Sixteenth President in Contemporary America by Jackie Hogan

Lincoln IncThis book is much more substantive than the colorful cover featuring a Lincoln bobblehead doll might suggest. It starts out light enough, with chapters cataloging various ways Abraham Lincoln is “sold” to the modern public. These include how Lincoln has been adopted by both current political parties, does brisk sales in memorabilia and museum visits (even if much on display is reproduction), and gets featured in a variety of sales pitches. But the book also delves into more scholarly questions such as how Lincoln is presented to the public. Hogan suggests this is mostly as a positive “boy scout” model who rose from meager beginnings to epitomize the American dream while his more negative attributes are ignored.

And she does seem to have some negative opinions. Perhaps because of her background in gender and race studies (she is a sociologist, not a Lincoln scholar), she at times appears to give undue weight to fringe opinions. For example, she laments that opinions on Lincoln’s “racial bigotry” and “suggestions of homosexuality” are largely ignored in biographies and museum displays. While she acknowledges that most public facilities have competing pressures for what they display, she disregards the main reason they are not highlighted; because scholarship tells us they are not supported by the facts.

This particular bias and some other more superficial understanding of Lincoln scholarship, however, should not dissuade people from reading the book. Each chapter ends with a section headed “An Outsider’s Perspective.” It is in these sections that Hogan most adeptly employs her sociologist perspective. Many of her insights, which Lincoln scholars may or may not always agree with, offer up substantive topics for debate that are highly worthwhile.

The book gives us a closer look not only at how we view Lincoln but in how those views reflect our desire to elevate him as an icon of the American Dream. He started low and ended high, as we all would like to believe can be achieved through hard work. This view can be inspiring, but as Hogan notes, can also set unreasonable standards not reflected by modern reality.

A short book (157 pages of text), it nonetheless has extensive endnotes (though most are to published biographies rather than primary literature). An interesting read.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Book Review – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta LacksThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

This is the story of Henrietta Lacks, her HeLa cells, and her family’s struggle to learn about their long dead mother. It’s also a detective story, a story of medical conduct, a story of Jim Crow, a story of modern and historical psychology, a story of ethics, and a story of religious faith. It is even a love story. It is all of these things, and Rebecca Skloot has successfully merged them into one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in many years.

Until recently few knew about Henrietta Lacks the person, though cell culture researchers have known of the HeLa cell line for many decades. Taken from the cervical cancer that killed Henrietta in 1951, HeLa cells have become immortal, living in test tubes and freezers in the billions even now, more than 60 years after Henrietta’s death. Growing like the cancer they derived from, HeLa cells have been used to develop treatments for many diseases, but also have contaminated virtually ever other cell line that has been attempted. This book traces the history of the cells, their benefits, and the ethical questions that arose because of their use without the knowledge of anyone in Henrietta’s family.

But even more than that, this is a book about the struggle of Henrietta’s descendants to learn about the mother they never knew. A poor African-American family that has gone through many trials must now take on the trials of seeking out answers. At times breathtakingly sad, the story can at other times have you cheering for Henrietta’s youngest daughter Deborah and her extended family.

I highly recommend this book. Scientists will find the medical story captivating, both for the thrill of its discoveries and the questions raised about informed consent. Non-scientists should also be enthralled with the medical story, but will also see the broader questions of segregation, poverty, family, religious belief, and the sometimes expansive divide between scientists and the public.

Skloot’s writing is stellar. She easily conveys the medical and technical material in language everyone can understand. She is equally adept in communicating the depth of emotion and confusion and anger of Henrietta’s family.

Other Book Reviews

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Book Review – The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

Man Who Loved ChinaRenowned author Simon Winchester has written a wonderful book about a scientist most people have not heard about, but should have. Joseph Needham was a biochemist, nudist, socialist-leaning British scientist at prestigious Cambridge University. He was devoted both to his wife and his mistress, the latter of whom was a visiting Chinese scientist who introduced him to the culture he would obsessively love and study the rest of his life.

That obsession led to a series of epic volumes (now 7 “volumes” in 24 books, and counting) called “Science and Civilisation in China.” In it he documents in great detail how most of the inventions and scientific we have come to know as western were actually originally invented and envisioned in China (step aside Gutenberg, the printed book predated you by several centuries).

Winchester touches on some of those inventions, but mostly the book traces the man, his journeys in China during the Japanese occupation and second world war, his socialistic leanings (including meeting Chou Enlai and Mao Zedong), and the trials of creating his masterpiece, which was only partially finished at his death at 95 years old. At one point, soon after Mao has taken over China and the western world (including his campus) are in the midst of the “red scare,” Needham finds himself duped by his former friends in China, which nearly crashes his career and book project. Winchester examines that blunder and Needham’s slow climb back to acceptability, then the great success of creating one of the greatest treatises on the history of science.

An eye-opening book in many ways, exceptionally well-written by one of today’s most successful non-fiction writers. Of interest to scientists, to those who are interested in China, and anyone who wants to learn more about both.

More on “Science and Civilisation in China” can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China.

More book reviews on Goodreads.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Locked

 

Book Review – Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams

Turn Right at Machu PicchuMark Adams is an editor and writer for adventure magazines who had never done anything at all adventurous. That is, until he became obsessed with Hiram Bingham III, the Yale lecturer and explorer who discovered Machu Picchu. Adams decides to follow in the steps of Bingham, and so begins a modern trek over ancient lands.

While Bingham may have indirectly been the inspiration for Indiana Jones, Adams is led on his adventure by a guide more closely related to Crocodile Dundee. John Leivers is an Aussie who has traveled to the remotest places in the world, usually under an 80-pound backpack. With four Peruvian natives manning the mules, carrying supplies, and cooking meals as they camp in the wilds, Adams and Leivers hike to Incan ruins ignored by modern tourists but discovered by Bingham a hundred years ago.

As the story unfolds, Adams reveals that “discovered” might be somewhat of a misnomer. Still, the triad of expeditions by Bingham are brought to life through Adams’s recreation of the events and retelling of Bingham’s rather comprehensive and detailed (i.e., boring) reports. The style of the book is to interweave the author’s own personal background and trials (along with that of John and the Peruvian guides) with Bingham’s history. Also interwoven is the history of the Incas from Atahulapa (murdered by Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro after extracting a ransom of gold and silver) to Manco Inca’s guerrilla warfare (and escape into the mountains) to the discovery of the ruins of Vitcos, Espritu Pampa, and Machu Picchu.

The book provides a sense of the territory being traversed and the culture both of the Incas and modern Peruvians. Adams’s writing is fluid and light, laced with rye humor, and constructed in very short chapters that make the book a delightful read. It does get sluggish in a few places, most notably immediately after Machu Picchu and Adams’s return to New York, but picks up again as he makes a return trip to hike the Inca Trail. Insights into local customs, ancient rites, and modern inconveniences are knitted deftly throughout the book.

Turn Right at Machu Picchu” was recommended to me as a preview for my upcoming visit to the ancient city. I found that it aroused my curiosity and excitement for the trip. If you’re planning such a trip, or simply are interested in a good adventure tail about the area, then this is the book for you.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Lincoln (and Me) in New Orleans

I’m science traveling in New Orleans. Somehow I’ve never been to the city before so am chomping at the chance to visit, in part because New Orleans played a role in Abraham Lincoln’s emerging world view. He traveled there twice, both times on a flatboat floating down the Mississippi River just before leaving the family home to set up a life as a young adult. I’ll have more on the trip when I return, but it got me thinking of a book I had read last year. I’m reposting the review of it here to whet your appetite for more. Enjoy.

Lincoln in New OrleansBook Review – Lincoln in New Orleans by Richard Campanella

An exceptionally well researched book recreating Abraham Lincoln’s flatboat trips to New Orleans. Campanella is an expert on New Orleans, and has expanded his expertise upstream to develop a detailed account of Lincoln’s two trips down the Mississippi River. No small feat given that the sum total of all the first person reminiscences of the trips by Lincoln and participants wouldn’t fill a page of text. Campanella’s recreation, like many efforts based on such scant direct information, is not however contrived in the least. On the contrary, the effort he has put into collecting and analyzing fragmented – and often contradictory or dubious – accounts is exemplary.

I would suggest the book is for the serious reader rather those with a casual interest in Lincoln, New Orleans, or the Mississippi River. It is extremely fact-dense, and the writing style is scholarly, yet accessible for thoughtful enthusiasts. Those expecting an exhilarating story of adventure won’t find it, though an adventure it does describe. To me that not only doesn’t take away from the book, it helps define it as scholarship to be taken seriously.

After a short introduction there are only five long chapters. The first explores Lincoln’s father Thomas’ own flatboat trip as a youth, along with setting the stage for Lincoln’s  desire to hit the muddy waters himself. “The 1828 Experience” is a massive undertaking; more than 100 pages of detailed research into the timing of his first flatboat trip while still living in Indiana, the building of the boat, the obstacles in the rivers and elsewhere, the arrival and lingering in New Orleans at the end, and the trip back home. Campanella teases apart the disparate accounts, provides a detailed analysis of the attack by slaves, and places Lincoln in the context of the technologically changing times.

Another chapter examines Lincoln’s second flatboat experience in 1831, including analysis of the mill dam story, the crew and timing of departures, and much more. While truncated so as not to repeat the riverine details well covered in the previous chapter, it still tallies about 40 pages. This is followed by a chapter speculating about what Lincoln may have seen and done in New Orleans, framed by extensive actual facts about what was going on there at that time. In his Conclusions chapter Campanella assesses what influences these flatboat voyages may have had on Lincoln’s views of slavery, internal improvements, and political philosophy. On top of all of this Campanella adds two appendices providing wonderful background material on commerce on western rivers and on New Orleans itself during the time period in which Lincoln was developing into the President he would become.

This is an extraordinary book of scholarship that deserves more attention that it has apparently received. It’s not for the casual reader, but it should be for everyone seriously interested in this critical period of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

More Abraham Lincoln book reviews can be read here (scroll down for more).

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David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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