Carwardine talking about the “culturally programmed hostility of Democrats to the party of Lincoln”: “Many continued to dismisss Republicans as Yankee-Puritan fanatics, bigots, zealots, meddlers, and ideological imperialists,” without whose imperialism there would have been no Civil War (Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, p. 167). Some things do change. For example, Democrats now are a bit more interested in African-American rights. Also, we would need to replace “Yankee” with “Midwestern and Southern.” But some other things apparently have not changed much.
To praise the book as an excellent biography of Lincoln would be to tread close to the fallacy ad verecundiam, so I will refrain. But I did find it a fascinating read. And it made me wish that I had time to read more history books.
-Sydney
Alan Schmierer