Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest
by Jan Morris
On This Page
Description
Abraham Lincoln's was a martyrdom waiting to happen, and his portraits show it. For myself I do not much like the look of him in his youth or young manhood, with his hair smarmed down and his eyes sharp. Even when he had grown his beard and assumed his final persona, there often seems to me something too calculating about his face, something almost sly. But as the decades passed, and time after time he went down to Brady's studio for another sitting, to my mind a true beauty entered his show more features. A sad, resigned kindness cleared his eyes and mouth of cunning then, and he began to look as though all the world's sufferings, all his own anxieties, had scoured any resentment from his soul. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
John_Vaughan Both David Donald and Jan Morris portray President Lincoln from personal perceptions.
Member Reviews
A mediocre look at how an "outsider" to American culture and history sees the popularity of the 16th president. I don't dislike the book, but it is not particularly insightful either.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
In the end, Morris succeeds in chipping away years of accumulated polish to get to the core of the Lincoln legend. In doing so, she helps us to see a good man for what he really was and what he means to us as Americans.
added by John_Vaughan
“He was essentially a nice man,” she sighs. By the time she visits somber Gettysburg, she is gushing with admiration for a rough-hewn, unrefined, but exquisitely gentle commoner who rose to meet the challenge of his times, and help promote the meddlesome idealism of millennial America. Caustic, patronizing, and misinformed: Lincoln for Dummies
added by John_Vaughan
Author Information
86+ Works 10,609 Members
Jan Morris served as an intelligence officer with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, studied at Oxford University, and was a reporter for the Times and the Guardian before launching a successful career as a novelist, history author, and travel writer
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Abraham Lincoln
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, General Nonfiction, Travel
- DDC/MDS
- 973.7 — History & geography History of North America United States Administration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 Civil War
- LCC
- E457 .M88 — History of the United States United States Civil War period, 1861-1865 Lincoln's administrations, 1861-April 15, 1865
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 163
- Popularity
- 199,967
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.26)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
