Lincoln and His Critics

Introduction by Eric Foner

During his lifetime Lincoln was attacked by some for being a weak and indecisive leader and by others for being an ambitious and bloodthirsty tyrant. This reader explores how the negative image of Lincoln has evolved over time.

Contents

• Horace Greeley, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" (1862).
• Karl Marx, "On Events in North America" (1862).
• George Templeton Strong, from The Diaries (1862).
• Anonymous, from Abraham Africanus I (1864).
• Petroleum V. Nasby, "Has an Interview with the President" (1864).
• H. L. Mencken, from Prejudices: Third Series (1922).
• Delmore Schwartz, "Lincoln" (1959).
• MacKinlay Kantor, from If the South Had Won the Civil War (1961)
• Edmund Wilson, from Patriotic Gore (1962).
• Robert Lowell, "Abraham Lincoln" (1976).

Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books, including Tom Paine and Revolutionary America and Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877.