I know that I have mentioned that my running buddy and fellow Shakespeare connoisseur, DT, is a greater believer in brevity. Since he tends to apply that belief more to others than himself, I usually don't try to pay much attention to his wishes. However, this post about the PBS documentary Looking for Lincoln is going to be different. I have written quite a lot about our sixteenth President since starting this blog so I only want to make a few comments about this almost two hour show that aired on February 11th, the eve of the Lincoln Bicentennial.
Hosted and written by the African-American scholar, Henry Louis Gates, I had some trepidation about what the show would be like. At the Lincoln Forum in November I heard something about positions that Gates was taking about Lincoln that sounded like buying into the view that Lincoln was a racist and not worthy of the the high reputation that he holds today. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. It was a very even handed effort to understand Lincoln especially from the point of view of an African-American who had inherited the worshipful views of earlier generations of Afro-Americans, who was now coming to terms with statements and actions of Lincoln that were not inspired by the "better angels" of his nature.
The show took the form of Gates traveling to many Lincoln sites, doing research and talking to Lincoln scholars and others including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. One thing that I found important was when Doris Kearns Goodwin told Gates that the posthumous hero worship given to Lincoln was certainly not his fault or his responsibility. By the end of the show it seemed like the election of President Obama had helped Gates to see Lincoln in a more objective, but still positive light.
The one major criticism, I had of the show is that there were times when it seemed like Gates was trying to treat the Civil War and the issue of slavery as if they were two things that just happened to be going on simultaneously rather than two things that were intertwined with one another. Since college I have always believed that slavery was the cause of the war, states rights and other issues not withstanding. There always seemed to be a comprise out of those other places where state rights and union broke down, but this was not the case with the slavery.
As an amateur, little-if at all, known historian I also have to admit to some jealousy as to the access that Gates enjoyed. It reminded me of something about Jon Meacham's book, "American Lion." In the acknowledgements Meacham thanks his fact checkers - all six of them! Since I only have one fact checker, proof-reader etc, I hope I can be forgiven some level of envy. In Gates' case the advantages of this kind of access was graphically illustrated when he is show reading one of Lincoln's note books, without the protective gloves required by almost every museum and, is at one point, shown lying on a couch reading the invaluable historical document. Still the show was well done and I think it will help the general public get a fuller picture of this great man.
Hosted and written by the African-American scholar, Henry Louis Gates, I had some trepidation about what the show would be like. At the Lincoln Forum in November I heard something about positions that Gates was taking about Lincoln that sounded like buying into the view that Lincoln was a racist and not worthy of the the high reputation that he holds today. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. It was a very even handed effort to understand Lincoln especially from the point of view of an African-American who had inherited the worshipful views of earlier generations of Afro-Americans, who was now coming to terms with statements and actions of Lincoln that were not inspired by the "better angels" of his nature.
The show took the form of Gates traveling to many Lincoln sites, doing research and talking to Lincoln scholars and others including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. One thing that I found important was when Doris Kearns Goodwin told Gates that the posthumous hero worship given to Lincoln was certainly not his fault or his responsibility. By the end of the show it seemed like the election of President Obama had helped Gates to see Lincoln in a more objective, but still positive light.
The one major criticism, I had of the show is that there were times when it seemed like Gates was trying to treat the Civil War and the issue of slavery as if they were two things that just happened to be going on simultaneously rather than two things that were intertwined with one another. Since college I have always believed that slavery was the cause of the war, states rights and other issues not withstanding. There always seemed to be a comprise out of those other places where state rights and union broke down, but this was not the case with the slavery.
As an amateur, little-if at all, known historian I also have to admit to some jealousy as to the access that Gates enjoyed. It reminded me of something about Jon Meacham's book, "American Lion." In the acknowledgements Meacham thanks his fact checkers - all six of them! Since I only have one fact checker, proof-reader etc, I hope I can be forgiven some level of envy. In Gates' case the advantages of this kind of access was graphically illustrated when he is show reading one of Lincoln's note books, without the protective gloves required by almost every museum and, is at one point, shown lying on a couch reading the invaluable historical document. Still the show was well done and I think it will help the general public get a fuller picture of this great man.
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