The Lincoln Enigma

In The Lincoln Enigma, Gabor Boritt invites renowned Lincoln scholars, and rising new voices, to take a look at much-debated aspects of Lincoln’s life—including his possible gay relationships, his plan to send blacks back to Africa, and his high-handed treatment of the Constitution. Boritt explores Lincoln’s proposals that looked to a lily-white America. Jean Baker marvels at Lincoln’s loves and marriage. David Herbert Donald compares Lincoln and Jefferson
Davis as Commanders-in-Chief. Douglas Wilson shows us the young Lincoln—not the strong leader of popular history, but a man who struggles to find his purpose. Gerald Prokopowicz searches for the military
leader, William C. Harris for the peacemaker, and Robert Bruce meditates on Lincoln and death. In a final section Boritt and Harold Holzer offer a fascinating portfolio of Lincoln images in modern art. Acute and thought-provoking in their observations, this all-star cast of historians—including two Pulitzer and three Lincoln Prize winners—questions our assumptions of Lincoln, and provides a new vitality to our ongoing reflections on his life and legacy.

Author Biography

Gabor S. Boritt is Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. His books include Why the Civil War Came and The Gettysburg Nobody Knows.