ebook img

The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln PDF

240 Pages·2012·3.322 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln

The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln’s stature as an American cultural fi gure grows from his political legacy. In today’s milieu, the speeches he delivered as the sixteenth president of the United States have become synonymous with American progress, values, and exceptionalism. What makes Lincoln’s language so effective? Highlighting matters of style, affect, nationalism, and history in nineteenth-century America, this collection examines the rhetorical power of Lincoln’s prose – from the earliest legal decisions, stump speeches, anecdotes, and letters to the Gettysburg Address and the lingering power of the Second Inaugural Address. Through careful analysis of his correspondence with Civil War generals and his early poetry, the contributors, all literary and cultural critics, give readers a unique look into Lincoln’s private life. Their essays also examine Lincoln’s language in a larger sphere, including that of the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as Europe. Such a collection enables teachers, students, and readers of American history to assess the impact of this extraordinary writer – and rare politician – on the world’s stage. Shirley Samuels works with the American Studies program and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Cornell University. She has taught at Princeton, Brandeis, and the University of Delaware. She has had fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Huntington Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. In addition to journal articles and chapters in books, she is author of Reading the American Novel: 1780–1865 (2012); F acing America: Iconography and the Civil War (2004); and Romances of the Republic: Women, the Family, and Violence in the Literature of the Early American Nation (1996). She is editor of the C ompanion to American Fiction, 1780–1865 (2004) and T he Culture of Sentiment: Race, Gender, and Sentimentality in Nineteenth-Century America (1992). CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO AMERICAN STUDIES This series of Companions to key fi gures in American history and culture is aimed at students of American studies, history, and literature. Each volume features newly commissioned essays by experts in the fi eld, with a chronology and guide to further reading. VOLUMES PUBLISHED The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass edited by Maurice Lee The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan edited by Kevin Dettmar The Cambridge Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois edited by Shamoon Zamir The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin edited by Carla Mulford The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson edited by Frank Shuffelton The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X edited by Robert Terrill THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO A B R A H A M L I N C O L N EDITED BY SHIRLEY SAMUELS Cornell University cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, S ã o Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521145732 © Cambridge University Press 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data The Cambridge companion to Abraham Lincoln / [edited by] Shirley Samuels. p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to American studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-19316-0 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-521-14573-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 – Language. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 – Oratory. 3. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 – Correspondence. 4. Presidents – United States – Biography. 5. Rhetoric – Political aspects – United States – Case studies. 6. United States – Politics and government – 1861–1865. I. Samuels, Shirley. II. Title: Abraham Lincoln. E457.2.C245 2012 973.7092–dc23 2012009107 ISBN 9 78-0-521-19316-0 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-14573-2 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. CONTENTS List of Illustrations page ix List of Contributors x i Chronology of Lincoln’s Life x iii Introduction 1 1. Rhetorically Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln and Oratorical Culture 8 Ivy G. Wilson 2. Abraham Lincoln and Poetry 2 2 Faith Barrett 3. Seeing Lincoln: Visual Encounters 4 0 Carol Payne 4. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address 5 9 Stephen Cushman 5. Lincoln and the Natural Nation 7 2 Timothy Sweet 6. Abraham Lincoln and the American Indians 9 1 Bethany Schneider 7. Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Governing Constitution 1 08 Deak Nabers 8. Abraham Lincoln and Spiritual Crisis 1 26 Harold K. Bush, Jr. vii Contents 9 . America and Britain during the Civil War 1 41 Paul Giles 10. Lincoln in International Memory 1 55 Betsy Erkkila 11. Lincoln’s Hemispheric Relations 1 83 Robert Fanuzzi 12. Lincoln on Hallowed Ground 195 Anne Norton Guide to Further Reading 2 09 Index 215 viii ILLUSTRATIONS 1 . D ennis Brack, Obama at the Lincoln Memorial, January 18, 2009 page 41 2. T he Railsplitter (October 27, 1860): 1 43 3. M athew Brady, Abraham Lincoln on the day of his speech at the Cooper Union, February, 27, 1860 4 5 4. M athew Brady, presidential campaign button with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin 4 8 5 . A lexander Gardner, President Lincoln on battlefi eld of Antietam, October 1862 4 9 6 . F rancis Bicknell Carpenter, First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln (1864) 5 0 7 . M athew Brady, Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President. Seated portrait, facing front, January 8, 1864 51 8 . “ Abraham Lincoln. Portrait, Character, and Biography,” in American Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated (October 1864): 97 5 3 ix

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.