Abraham Lincoln on the study of history
Talk History: On learning from and writing history
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1Urquhart
The following is from the The Civil War: A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox by Shelby Foote, page 1060
Words spoken by Abraham Lincoln in response to a White House serenade on the occasion of his reelection:
“What has occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.”
2DinadansFriend
Lincoln remains one of the glories of American Civilization. Sometimes he was rather a determinist, but can usually recover his optimism by the end of the paragraph. For the student of history in its best sense, he has the right level of involvement with his current circumstances. A nice detail, and I note the source, proving that there's value in Foote, taken the right way.
It was such a tragedy, that Lincoln wasn't spared to write his memoir of the Civil War! There was a good chance he'd be seen as the American Churchill. (I know about Winston Churchill 'the American', a Novelist of the 1900's.)
It was such a tragedy, that Lincoln wasn't spared to write his memoir of the Civil War! There was a good chance he'd be seen as the American Churchill. (I know about Winston Churchill 'the American', a Novelist of the 1900's.)
3Phlegethon99
The title "American Churchill" strictly as a novelist certainly would be much more appealing than as politician and warlord.
4DinadansFriend
Ah, you see there was an American novelist, no relative of Winston Churchill, named Winston Churchill, (1871 -1947). He and the British Churchill did conduct a correspondence that led to the American Churchill publishing his novels with the author being credited on the title page as "Winston Churchill, the American, ". He was the author of "Richard Carvel" a novel that sold two million copies in 1899. Winston Spencer Churchill, the future PM published a novel "Savrola" on the life of an active politician in a fictitious country rather like Ruritania. Also published in 1899, it had a press run of 10,000 in England , the USA, and an "Imperial" edition. Sales were modest, with Churchill's share eventually netting him $3500.00. He restricted his flights of fancy to the political arena for the next 65 years.
