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Lincoln's Body - A Cultural History: Book by Richard Wightman Fox

Lincoln's Body - A Cultural History

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ISBN: 9780393065305    Publisher: WW Norton & Co Year of publishing: 2015     Format:  Hardback No of Pages: 416        Language: English
In a stunning feat of scholarship, insight, and engaging prose, Lincoln's Body explores how a president ungainly in body and downright "ugly" of aspect came to mean so much to us. The very roughness of Lincoln's...Read more
In a stunning feat of scholarship, insight, and engaging prose, Lincoln's Body explores how a president ungainly in body and downright "ugly" of aspect came to mean so much to us. The very roughness of Lincoln's appearance made him seem all the more common, one of us-as did his sense of humor about his own awkward physical nature. Nineteenth-century African Americans felt deep affection for their "liberator" as a "homely" man who did not hold himself apart. During Reconstruction, Southerners felt a nostalgia for the humility of Lincoln, whom they envisioned as a "conciliator." Later, teachers glorified Lincoln as a symbol of nationhood that would appeal to poor immigrants. Monument makers focused not only on the man's gigantic body but also on his nationalist efforts to save the Union, downplaying his emancipation of the slaves. Among both black and white liberals in the 1960s and 1970s, Lincoln was derided or fell out of fashion.
More recently, Lincoln has once again been embodied (as both idealist and pragmatist, unafraid of conflict and transcending it) by outstanding historians, by self-identified Lincolnian president Barack Obama, and by actor Daniel Day-Lewis-all keeping Lincoln alive in a body of memory that speaks volumes about our nation.
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About the author: Richard Wightman Fox
Richard Wightman Fox is a professor of history at the University of Southern California and the author of Jesus in America and Trials of Intimacy, among... Read more
Richard Wightman Fox is a professor of history at the University of Southern California and the author of Jesus in America and Trials of Intimacy, among other books. He lives in Venice, California.
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Review:
Fascinating... an astonishingly interesting interpretation... Fox [can be] wonderfully shrewd and often dazzling." -- Jill Lepore "One of our foremost cultural historians, Richard Wightman Fox, has...Read more
Fascinating... an astonishingly interesting interpretation... Fox [can be] wonderfully shrewd and often dazzling." -- Jill Lepore "One of our foremost cultural historians, Richard Wightman Fox, has added a new dimension to our understanding of Lincoln's place in American culture. Ranging over memorials, speeches, Hollywood movies, public demonstrations, and many other sources, he charts the ways Americans have remembered and imagined Lincoln and what the ups and downs of historical memory tell us about ourselves." -- Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery "In death, Abraham Lincoln, who never joined a church, proceeded from martyrdom to culthood to sainthood. In Lincoln's Body the eminent culture historian Richard Wightman Fox offers a dazzling interpretation of how it all happened, filled with fresh ideas about our greatest president's legacy." -- Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln "In his sweeping discussion of Lincoln's physical body (how people viewed it during his lifetime or interpreted it after his death), Richard Wightman Fox deftly traces the high-stakes cultural battle-waged in poetry, prose, art, and film-over the meaning of Lincoln, man and myth, from his day to our own." -- Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 "Richard Wightman Fox has ingeniously portrayed the physical body of Abraham Lincoln, living and dead, in his own time and in memory, as a vehicle for evaluating Lincoln's continuing impact on American culture." -- James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom "With subtle analysis and supple writing, preeminent cultural historian Richard Wightman Fox is especially insightful on the African-American experiences of Lincoln. Readers will sense from the first page that this is a book they will want to linger over in their delight." -- Ronald C. White Jr., author of A. Lincoln: A Biography "It might be logical to think that there is nothing more to say about Abraham Lincoln. Richard Wightman Fox's elegant, fascinating, and moving book shows how wrong that is. With prodigious scholarship and beautiful prose, he makes clear why and how Lincoln is alive to every generation of Americans." -- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart
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