Merrill D. Peterson is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Virginia. His books include The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (winner of the Bancroft Prize), The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation.
"It is a brilliant work. I shall praise it lavishly."--Norman
Ferris, Middle Tennessee State University
"This volume makes for pleasant reading. Anyone interested in the
subject of Abraham Lincoln will discover that this book belongs on
his or her shelf of literature."--Lincoln Herald
"Here is a brilliant work, the product of a diligent, insightful
mind. The style is pleasing, graced by felicitous phrases, and
lucid. No other work is quite like it."--History
"Lincoln is a national treasure, and this book is worthy of him.
Recommended."--Library Journal
"Peterson has done a superb job of telling us precisely what it is
that Lincoln means to us and how that has come to be so. Among the
thousands upon thousands of books that have been written about this
greatest of all Americans, Lincoln in American Memory occupies a
very high place."--Jonathan Yardley in the Washington Post
"Doing for Abraham Lincoln what he did for Thomas Jefferson in his
classic The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, Merrill Peterson
offers the best and most encyclopedic assessment of the vast
Lincoln literature ever written. He realizes that Lincoln, perhaps
unlike Jefferson, belongs to the people and not just to the
historians, so he has mapped the streams of both biography and
folklore. In these pages academics labor cheek by jowl with
preachers,
poets, and politicians to forge the most important personage in
American collective memory. The result is a work without parallel
among the thousands of works on Lincoln--a trustworthy guide to
that enormous
store of history and myth."--Mark E. Neely, Jr., author of the
Pulitzer Prize-winning The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and
Civil Liberties
"A masterpiece. It should be required reading for all
Americans."--Robert Tortorella, Felician College
"Peterson's Lincoln in American Memory is an utterly fascinating
work, some of it familiar but for the most part richly fresh in
detail and highly revealing about the spontaneous and deeply felt
creation of a truly democratic hero. Peterson's book is a
particular achievement because of the vastness of the materials he
has mastered, ranging from serious scholarship to elusive ephemera.
Lincoln in American Memory is inspiring because the
knowledge that political malice and pettiness can be surmounted
gives us cause to be hopeful that such lessons of the past will be
re-enacted. This is a profoundly absorbing and provocative
study."--Michael Kammen,
Times-Mirror Research Scholar, Professor of American Studies, The
Huntington Library
"This is a book that needed to be done, and Merrill Peterson was
just the man to do it. The great skill with which he once
delineated the Jefferson image is again displayed in this splendid
contribution to American cultural history."--Don E. Fehrenbacher,
Lincoln in Text and Context: Collected Essays
"A highly original, exhaustively researched, expertly organized,
and surpassingly entertaining book. In lesser hands, such a
detailed effort--balancing so many disparate voices--might easily
have descended into the realm of 'The Book of Lists'. In Peterson's
hands it becomes, instead, a gripping look not only into history
but into the making of history."--Harold Holzer, Illinois
Historical Journal
"At the moment of the president's death, Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton exclaimed: 'Now he belongs to the ages.' This book tells
how and suggests why Lincoln belonged, and still belongs, to
American memory. For the first time we have a central part of a
fascinating story. Vintage merrill Peterson, written with measured
empathy."--Gabor Boritt, Civil War Institute, Gettysburg
College
"Abraham Lincoln has been more frequently and more widely
remembered than any other American, but he has been remembered in
many different and contradictory ways. Merrill Peterson, having
mastered the vast and convoluted Lincoln literature, presents a
comprehensive, keenly perceptive, and highly readable history of
Lincoln's reputation. This should be a prizewinning work."--Richard
N. Current, author of Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from
the
Confederacy
"Masterful study of the evolution of the Lincoln image."--New York
Newsday
"An impressive book in its range of coverage, the author succeeds
in tracing the place of Lincoln in the thoughts and imagination of
numerous generations of Americans."--Craig Keller, George
Washington University
"In this highly readable book, Dr. Peterson shows the hold Lincoln
has on America as well as international memory. This is an
indispensable resource for everyone, student or scholar, casual
reader or amateur historian. 'Lincoln in American Memory' is a
monumental achievement that is a pleasure to read."--Spencer Gill,
The Civil War News
"Peterson's book is a useful contribution to Lincoln studies, for
it offers a chronologically ordered account of the Lincoln legacy.
Anyone seeking to know about poetry, biography, and monuments
devoted to him might well begin with this book. Peterson weaves the
diverse strands of his subject admirably, capturing not only the
detailed and concrete memorials but also the changing spirit behind
them. Thus he has made a contribution to the social history of
the
nation as well."--Stanley Archer, Magill's Literary Annual 1995
"A much needed study that builds on the more narrowly conceived
work of Michael Davis and Alfred Jones. It also offers proof that
there are still interesting ways of looking at Lincoln."--Kyle S.
Sinisi, Society of Civil War Historians Newsletter
Historian Peterson ( The Great Triumvirate , LJ 8/87) provides a chronological history of Abraham Lincoln's place in the American imagination. Lincoln's achievements and the drama of his death make him a continuing subject of study for each generation. Concisely summarizing the field of Lincoln literature, from the time of his death to the present, Peterson offers his own analysis and explains why and how each generation tries to make Lincoln its own. Peterson details the five images of Lincoln: the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, man of the people, first American, and self-made man. Literature, art, and music are all covered in this review of Lincoln through the ages. Lincoln is a national treasure, and this book is worthy of him. Recommended for most libraries.-- Patricia Owens, Wabash Valley Coll., Mt. Carmel, Ill.
"It is a brilliant work. I shall praise it lavishly."--Norman Ferris, Middle Tennessee State University "This volume makes for pleasant reading. Anyone interested in the subject of Abraham Lincoln will discover that this book belongs on his or her shelf of literature."--Lincoln Herald "Here is a brilliant work, the product of a diligent, insightful mind. The style is pleasing, graced by felicitous phrases, and lucid. No other work is quite like it."--History "Lincoln is a national treasure, and this book is worthy of him. Recommended."--Library Journal "Peterson has done a superb job of telling us precisely what it is that Lincoln means to us and how that has come to be so. Among the thousands upon thousands of books that have been written about this greatest of all Americans, Lincoln in American Memory occupies a very high place."--Jonathan Yardley in the Washington Post "Doing for Abraham Lincoln what he did for Thomas Jefferson in his classic The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, Merrill Peterson offers the best and most encyclopedic assessment of the vast Lincoln literature ever written. He realizes that Lincoln, perhaps unlike Jefferson, belongs to the people and not just to the historians, so he has mapped the streams of both biography and folklore. In these pages academics labor cheek by jowl with preachers, poets, and politicians to forge the most important personage in American collective memory. The result is a work without parallel among the thousands of works on Lincoln--a trustworthy guide to that enormous store of history and myth."--Mark E. Neely, Jr., author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties "A masterpiece. It should be required reading for all Americans."--Robert Tortorella, Felician College "Peterson's Lincoln in American Memory is an utterly fascinating work, some of it familiar but for the most part richly fresh in detail and highly revealing about the spontaneous and deeply felt creation of a truly democratic hero. Peterson's book is a particular achievement because of the vastness of the materials he has mastered, ranging from serious scholarship to elusive ephemera. Lincoln in American Memory is inspiring because the knowledge that political malice and pettiness can be surmounted gives us cause to be hopeful that such lessons of the past will be re-enacted. This is a profoundly absorbing and provocative study."--Michael Kammen, Times-Mirror Research Scholar, Professor of American Studies, The Huntington Library "This is a book that needed to be done, and Merrill Peterson was just the man to do it. The great skill with which he once delineated the Jefferson image is again displayed in this splendid contribution to American cultural history."--Don E. Fehrenbacher, Lincoln in Text and Context: Collected Essays "A highly original, exhaustively researched, expertly organized, and surpassingly entertaining book. In lesser hands, such a detailed effort--balancing so many disparate voices--might easily have descended into the realm of 'The Book of Lists'. In Peterson's hands it becomes, instead, a gripping look not only into history but into the making of history."--Harold Holzer, Illinois Historical Journal "At the moment of the president's death, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton exclaimed: 'Now he belongs to the ages.' This book tells how and suggests why Lincoln belonged, and still belongs, to American memory. For the first time we have a central part of a fascinating story. Vintage merrill Peterson, written with measured empathy."--Gabor Boritt, Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College "Abraham Lincoln has been more frequently and more widely remembered than any other American, but he has been remembered in many different and contradictory ways. Merrill Peterson, having mastered the vast and convoluted Lincoln literature, presents a comprehensive, keenly perceptive, and highly readable history of Lincoln's reputation. This should be a prizewinning work."--Richard N. Current, author of Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy "Masterful study of the evolution of the Lincoln image."--New York Newsday "An impressive book in its range of coverage, the author succeeds in tracing the place of Lincoln in the thoughts and imagination of numerous generations of Americans."--Craig Keller, George Washington University "In this highly readable book, Dr. Peterson shows the hold Lincoln has on America as well as international memory. This is an indispensable resource for everyone, student or scholar, casual reader or amateur historian. 'Lincoln in American Memory' is a monumental achievement that is a pleasure to read."--Spencer Gill, The Civil War News "Peterson's book is a useful contribution to Lincoln studies, for it offers a chronologically ordered account of the Lincoln legacy. Anyone seeking to know about poetry, biography, and monuments devoted to him might well begin with this book. Peterson weaves the diverse strands of his subject admirably, capturing not only the detailed and concrete memorials but also the changing spirit behind them. Thus he has made a contribution to the social history of the nation as well."--Stanley Archer, Magill's Literary Annual 1995 "A much needed study that builds on the more narrowly conceived work of Michael Davis and Alfred Jones. It also offers proof that there are still interesting ways of looking at Lincoln."--Kyle S. Sinisi, Society of Civil War Historians Newsletter
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
