By Harold Holzer
From his earliest days, Lincoln devoured newspapers. As he
started out in politics he wrote editorials and letters to argue his case. He
spoke to the public directly through the press. He even bought a
German-language newspaper to appeal to that growing electorate in his state.
Lincoln alternately pampered, battled, and manipulated the three most powerful
publishers of the day: Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, James Gordon
Bennett of the New York Herald, and Henry Raymond of the New York Times.
When war broke out and the nation was tearing itself apart,
Lincoln authorized the most widespread censorship in the nation’s history, closing
down papers that were “disloyal” and even jailing or exiling editors who
opposed enlistment or sympathized with secession. The telegraph, the new
invention that made instant reporting possible, was moved to the office of
Secretary of War Stanton to deny it to unfriendly newsmen.
Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who
covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination—when one
reporter ran to the box where Lincoln was shot and emerged to write the story
covered with blood. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized
newspaper editors battling for power, and a masterly president using the press
to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
About the Author
Harold Holzer, a leading authority
on Lincoln and the Civil War, is Chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial
Foundation and a Roger Hertog Fellow at the New York Historical Society. Widely
honored for his work, Holzer earned a second-place Lincoln Prize for Lincoln
at Cooper Union in 2005 and in 2008 was awarded the National Humanities
Medal. Holzer is Senior Vice President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
lives in Rye, New York.
ISBN 978-1439192719, Simon & Schuster, © 2014,
Hardcover, 768 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography
& Index. $37.50. To purchase this book click HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment