by Edward Steers Jr.
For 150 years, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln has
fascinated the American people. Relatively few academic historians, however,
have devoted study to it, viewing the murder as a side note tied to neither the
Civil War nor Reconstruction. Over time, the traditional story of the
assassination has become littered with myths, from the innocence of Mary
Surratt and Samuel Mudd to John Wilkes Booth’s escape to Oklahoma or India,
where he died by suicide several years later. In this succinct volume, Edward
Steers, Jr. sets the record straight, expertly analyzing the historical
evidence to explain Lincoln’s assassination.
The decision to kill President Lincoln, Steers shows, was an
afterthought. John Wilkes Booth’s original plan involved capturing Lincoln,
delivering him to the Confederate leadership in Richmond, and using him as a
bargaining chip to exchange for southern soldiers being held in Union prison
camps. Only after Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia and
Richmond fell to Union forces did Booth change his plan from capture to murder.
As Steers explains, public perception about Lincoln’s death has been shaped by
limited but popular histories that assert, alternately, that Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton engineered the assassination or that John Wilkes Booth was a mad
actor fueled by delusional revenge. In his detailed chronicle of the planning
and execution of Booth’s plot, Steers demonstrates that neither Stanton nor
anyone else in Lincoln’s sphere of political confidants participated in
Lincoln’s death, and Booth remained a fully rational person whose original plan
to capture Lincoln was both reasonable and capable of success. He also
implicates both Mary Surratt and Samuel Mudd, as well as other conspirators,
clarifying their parts in the scheme.
At the heart of Lincoln’s assassination, Steers reveals,
lies the institution of slavery. Lincoln’s move toward ending slavery and his
unwillingness to compromise on emancipation spurred the white supremacist Booth
and ultimately resulted in the president’s untimely death. With concise
chapters and inviting prose, this brief volume will prove essential for anyone
seeking a straightforward, authoritative analysis of one of the most dramatic
events in American history.
About the Author
Edward Steers, Jr., a scientist retired from the
National Institutes of Health, is the author, editor, coauthor, or coeditor of
thirteen books, including Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham
Lincoln; The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia; The Lincoln
Assassination: The Evidence; The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln
and the Trial of the Conspirators; and Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes,
and Confabulations Associated with Abraham Lincoln.
ISBN 978-0809333493, Southern Illinois University Press, ©
2014, Hardcover, 176 pages, Photographs, Maps, End Notes, and Index. $24.95. To purchase this book
click HERE.
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