Honoring Mr. Lincoln On His Birthday

A one-room log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness was the setting 204 years ago today when a boy was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.  They named their son Abraham, after Thomas' father, murdered in front of his son when Thomas was but a young child.  This new Abraham couldn't have had more humble beginnings. His parents were poor and illiterate (though Thomas could scratch out his name), and his mother Nancy was herself probably illegitimate.  Little is known of her own background.  She died of "milk sickness" when her son was 9 years old and her daughter only 11.  Soon a step-mother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, and her own children joined Thomas and his children to form a new family on the Indiana frontier.

Life was hard, and as Lincoln himself later wrote, his childhood and youth could be described as the "short and simple annals of the poor."  The Lincoln family was indeed poor, but early descriptions of it living in abject poverty are probably exaggerated.  The Lincolns were no poorer nor richer than most of their neighbors working to eke out a living from the land.  Thomas eked out a living on various farms and made furniture to help further raise scarce money. 

Throughout his entire life, Abraham Lincoln had less than 12-18 months formal education, making him one of our least educated of the Presidents of The United States.  His father never encouraged education for his children, and in fact seems to have considered school to be a waste of time.  Fortunately for his son, Lincoln's step-mother Sarah encouraged Abraham to read and learn as much as he could.  As a child (and as an adult), Lincoln had an insatiable desire to learn and better himself.  He read fine literature like Shakespeare and the Bible, Aesop's Fables, and an early biography of George Washington.  Lincoln also later taught himself geometry in order to simply learn.  This motivation to improve his lot in life set him apart from almost everyone he knew, especially his father, which might explain why the two were never close.

Lincoln had extraordinary ambition, which along with his quest for learning, might help at least partially explain how he achieved such towering heights in life.  He wanted to be held in esteem, but only by making himself worthy of esteem, as he said in his first campaign speech when running for the Illinois State Legislature.  Lincoln lost that first election, but he was determined to succeed, and won on his second try.  By the time he was in his late 20's and early 30's, friends and associates began calling him "Old Abe" as a sign of respect for his intellect and wisdom. 

That Lincoln was a genius seems clear.  With no formal education in any field, least of all engineering, he invented and patented a device to help remove boats off of sandbars in the shallow rivers in Illinois.  Railroads supplanted the need for such a contraption, which was never used.  Nonetheless, his 1849 patent for his invention remains the only one awarded to a future President Of The United States. 

He was, of course, a political genius as well.  He and his team of advisors outmaneuvered favored candidates to win the GOP nomination for President in 1860.  Then he molded his political rivals into a cabinet which was among the best in U.S. presidential history as Civil War raged.  Secretary of State Seward, Secretary of War Stanton, and Secretary of Navy Welles, and Secretary of Treasury Chase all worked against Lincoln at one point, but he saw their abilities and overlooked their political differences because he knew they were the best men for their jobs. 

Perhaps the greatest sign of Lincoln's genius is his prose writing which was majestic and almost poetic at its best. Many writers consider his prose to be among the finest writing by anyone, period, and not only among Presidents.  His Gettysburg Address helped reshape and re-define America in only 271 words.  His Second Inaugural Address reveals his magnanimity and desire to restore the nation, yet is among the shortest of all Presidential inaugural speeches.  These and other of his writings took place in an era when orations were expected to last hours, with flowery and embellished phrases.  Lincoln's simplicity and clarity of speech still stun in their beauty today.

Fascination with Abraham Lincoln has never really gone away, but he is today enjoying a surge in popularity which is remarkable.  The bicentennial of his birth saw exhibitions, concerts, and a re-dedication of the magnificent memorial in Washington, D.C.  If anything, Lincoln's presence seems even stronger in recent months.  The Stephen Spielberg film "Lincoln" with its astonishing performance by Daniel Day-Lewis leads this year's list of Academy Award nominations with 12.  The dreadful "Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter" was released this past summer to so-so reviews and a weak box office, but it did raise Lincoln's visibility further into popular culture.  President Obama again used the Lincoln Bible last month for his second inauguration as he did for his first.  New books about Lincoln seem to appear weekly.  His character is used in television commercials, including a new series of ones for Lincoln automobiles (yes, that line was named after Lincoln).  In short, Mr. Lincoln seems to be almost everywhere we look.

It's difficult to say why Lincoln still resonates with so many people, old and young, women and men.  Is it because he was so honest, a trait which is terribly lacking in our era of lying politicians and cheating athletes?  Is it simply because we're commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War?  Could it be his rise from absolutely nothing to his achieving the highest office in our land?  Or is it his martyrdom after he was struck down by a treasonous coward just as he was ready to experience the conclusion of our greatest war? 

Probably each of us who is endlessly fascinated with Mr. Lincoln has his or her own reason or reasons for that fascination.  I am often asked during my lectures what led to my own fascination.  The short answer is, I have no idea.  My parents took me to his Birthplace Memorial in Kentucky when I was 4 or 5, a visit I don't remember.  But I was "hooked" from that visit and remain "hooked" by the story and legacy of the greatest of our Presidents of the United States. 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln.  Thank you for your inspiration and leadership. 

"The Abolitionists" Premieres On PBS American Experience

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago on January 1, 1863.  He has been known as The Great Emancipator by many people ever since.  But his journey to issuing that document was a long one, complete with many stops and starts, twists and turns.  But for years, his approach to ending slavery favored a gradual emancipation, with freedom to the slaves given in exchange for compensation to their owners.  Abolitionists, on the other hand, were people who worked, struggled, and even died to bring an immediate end to the "peculiar institution" throughout the United States. Without the efforts of these major abolitionists exerting pressure and influence on both Congress and Abraham Lincoln, the institution of slavery may have continued for many more years.

The PBS award-winning program American Experience is bringing the story of five important abolitionists in a three-part series titled "The Abolitionists" debuting on Tuesday January 8, 2013 from 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. ET and continuing on the following Tuesdays, January 15th, and January 22nd, 2013 at the same time.

These are the interconnected stories of Frederick Douglass, Angelina Grimke', John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and William Lloyd Garrison, each of whom actively worked and spoke out against the evils of slavery.  Frederick Douglass was born and slave and escaped to freedom, eventually becoming a powerful speaker, writer, and author, one of the most eloquent in American history.  Harriet Beecher Stowe fought against slavery, authoring Uncle Tom's Cabin, which caused further outrage against slavery when thousands read her book across the North.  Angelina Grimke' was a daughter of privilege growing up on a plantation in South Carolina and saw the horrors of slavery first hand.  She later left her family and became one of the most outspoken foes of slavery, giving lectures and writing tracts against it.  William Lloyd Garrison was founder, publisher, and editor of The Liberator, the most influential of the anti-slavery newspapers throughout the North.  And John Brown was unfortunately led to violence by his virulent hatred of slavery and slave-owners, eventually being executed after he and a tiny band of men stormed the Federal Arsenal in Harper's Ferry, VA in a misguided attempt to incite a slave revolt.

At various points in time during the 1840's and 1850's, the lives of these five brave individuals crossed paths, Douglass and Garrison teaming for a while, Douglass nearly becoming involved in Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, and so forth.

Abolitionists did not have the support of everyone across even the Northern states where slavery was already banned or at least mostly nonexistent.  Some, including Garrison, were jailed.  Others were attacked by mobs and killed in the violence.  They were called agitators, radicals, troublemakers for helping to fan the flames of disunion.  Their story is a fascinating one which every American should learn about.

I've had the good fortune to be sent a preview copy of the entire mini-series "The Abolitionists" courtesy of a publicity agent for PBS.  I watched with rapt attention the entire documentary and it is superb, as is anything shown on American Experience.  The actors who portray these five abolitionists are outstanding, and the narration is equally fine.  As with any documentary, there are brief excerpts of interviews with leading historians, including David W. Blight, the Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.  Other historians featured are Carole Berkin, Lois Brown, Erica Armstrong Dunbar and a host of other experts on abolition, slavery, and the individual abolitionists portrayed in the mini-series.

I encourage everyone to watch "The Abolitionists".  Their story must never be forgotten.  

Film Review: Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln"

When I first read years ago that famed director Steven Spielberg was undertaking a project to make a movie about Abraham Lincoln, our greatest President Of The United States, I was excited as well as apprehensive.  To be sure, Mr. Spielberg has directed some of the most beloved films ever made, including "Jaws," "Saving Private Ryan," and "Schindler's List."  He's also given us "Hook" and "Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull," proof that even a famous director comes up with clunkers.  Then I happened to read that Mr. Spielberg had purchased the filming rights to author Doris Kearns Goodwin's best-selling "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln."  It's a good book, but it's also the "Lincoln-Book-Which-Will-Not-Die" and, in my opinion, undeserving of the excessive hype surrounding it since it was published in 2005.  There are other Lincoln books which are significantly better, such as "Lincoln" by the late historian David Herbert Donald.

Then Mr. Spielberg's interest in "Lincoln" seemed to fall by the wayside as he brought us the aforementioned 4th Indiana Jones movie, "The Adventures of Tintin" and "War Horse."  In fact, Spielberg's original choice to portray Lincoln, esteemed actor Liam Neeson, dropped out of the project claiming that he was  too "old" to effectively play him.

But then the project gathered momentum as it was announced that our greatest living actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, had been cast as Mr. Lincoln.  Sally Field as Mary Lincoln and  Tommy Lee Jones as Representative Thaddeus Stevens also joined the cast.  Between these three actors, they have earned five Academy Awards ® for their craft. Rounding out this exceptional cast is David Strathairn as Secretary of State William H. Seward, Hal Holbrook as Lincoln adviser Preston Blair, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's son Robert.

Mr. Spielberg was wise not to try to create a traditional biopic of Abraham Lincoln.  To do justice to such an extraordinary life as Lincoln's would be nearly impossible in a film of only 2-3 hours in length.  Instead, he chose to focus on Lincoln's fight for passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which forever banned institutionalized slavery in the United States.  It was a wise decision.  It permitted tight focus on one of the most dramatic months in U.S. history, when Congress was trying to decide if the slaves would be truly "forever free."

The acting.  Oh my, the acting.  This is one of the finest overall acting performances by a movie cast in decades.  It almost goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Abraham Lincoln can immediately be declared the greatest depiction of Lincoln in cinematic history. Mr. Day-Lewis "Lincoln" is the closest we will ever come to the real Lincoln.  We can't possibly know how Abraham Lincoln sounded, but all accounts tell us his voice was pitched high and thin.  To prepare his "voice" for Lincoln, Day-Lewis listened to old recordings of farmers from the regions of Kentucky and Indiana where Lincoln lived.  The resulting voice/accent which Day-Lewis uses might be startling to many audience members, but it is as accurate as it can possibly be.

Daniel Day-Lewis took an entire year to prepare for this part.  He is notoriously choosy about the roles he takes, and this is only his fifth movie of the past fifteen years.  Day-Lewis who is of course British, traveled to Lincoln's town of Springfield, IL to tour the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Lincoln home, and spent hours talking with Lincoln scholars in his attempt to get to "know" the President.  He studied books about Lincoln's gait, how he held his head and had stooped shoulders.  The result is a truly astonishing  portrayal of Mr. Lincoln.  So exceptional that I felt as if I was in the presence of greatness, not just seeing "Lincoln" as he most likely was, but seeing what is probably the greatest performance of this year.  In fact, it might be judged in the future as one of the most skillful performances ever seen on film.  If Mr. Day-Lewis does not win his third Academy Award ® as Best Actor for this brilliant and stunning performance, it will be a travesty.

Ms. Sally Field is outstanding in her role as the haunted Mary Lincoln.  She is in her own right one of the best actors of her generation, having also won two Best Acting Oscars ® for roles in "Norma Rae" and "Places In The Heart."  Quite simply, this is Ms. Field's best role and work in decades. Her portrayal of Mary Lincoln is the right mix of grief, frustration, and anger at having lost two children already, including Mary and Abraham's seemingly favorite, Willie, who died of typhus in 1862.  The scene where "Mary" berates "Lincoln" for not showing (in her opinion) enough grief for their son is spectacular.  Ms. Field more than holds her own against Mr. Day-Lewis.  Don't be surprised if she is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Tommy Lee Jones as Representative Thaddeus Stevens, who wanted to have complete equality, not only freedom, for slaves, is also outstanding.  Stevens was himself curmudgeonly as Mr. Jones seems to be in most of his roles, but Jones' performance is a wonderful portrayal of a man who deeply cared about ALL people, especially the ones who were held in slavery.  In fact, a scene toward the end of the movie is highly moving in which Jones conveys the emotions of a man who has just won a long and bitter struggle. I would expect Mr. Jones will achieve his own Oscar ® nomination for his performance.

David Strathairn, always so good, is an excellent Secretary of State "William Henry Seward."  He depicts Seward as a somewhat "stuffy" man of refined tastes, who is such a loyal aide to Abraham Lincoln that he feels free to argue and at times yell at the President.  It is also an accurate to life portrayal.

Spielberg chose the outstanding play and screenwriter Tony Kushner to bring the story to life.  The script is a marvel, with effective dialog and a wonderful historical accuracy.  Spielberg's cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has brought a perfect look and feel to the film.  The colors and lighting are soft which add to the overall effect of the solemn nature of the film.  And Spielberg's directing might be his finest work since "Schindler's List".  It is a subdued, authentic, and restrained direction which is thankfully lacking (mostly) the sentimentality that sometimes appears in his films.

Some parents have asked me in person and via email if this film is age appropriate for children who are 11 or 12 years old.  The film is rated PG-13 for language, a quick scene of brutal hand-to-hand combat, and the gore of dead bodies and amputated limbs.  "Lincoln" himself uses a scatological term in a joke he tells, but the historic Lincoln didn't shy away from language and off-color stories.  The language is not gratuitous nor excessive, and honestly it's probably nothing that children that age haven't already heard on the school bus or playground.  If your child (or children) loves Abraham Lincoln, as so many seem to do, don't hesitate to take them to see this movie.

The performances by the actors and director, the screenplay, and the cinematography all combine to make "Lincoln" a film of extraordinary achievement.  I believe it will withstand the test of time and will be deemed one of Spielberg's greatest films, if not his career masterpiece.  It is a tour de force of drama, emotion, some humor, and enthralling acting.  At the end of the showing, most of the audience applauded and more than a few were in tears.

If I had to rate this film in only one word, that word would be: "Perfection".   Thank you, Steven Spielberg, cast and crew, for bringing Abraham Lincoln to life.

The Lincolns' 170th Wedding Anniversary

Today marks the 170th anniversary of the wedding of Abraham Lincoln and Miss Mary Ann Todd in Springfield, Illinois. On November 4, 1842 the two were joined in matrimony at the home of Mary's sister and brother-in-law, Ninian and Elizabeth Edwards.  It was a small wedding with only 30 guests or so in attendance.  As a wedding gift, Lincoln gave his new bride a simple gold wedding ring which was inscribed "Love Is Eternal."

The wedding was a hastily arranged event, with Lincoln announcing only the day before that he and Mary wanted to get married that night, but the timing was such that the wedding took place on Friday, November 4.  The image above is of the original marriage certificate as filed with the state of Illinois.

Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd had become acquainted when she moved to Springfield into the Edwards home in 1839.  They met shortly after at a town dance, with Lincoln stating that he wanted to dance with Miss Todd "in the worst way."  It is said that Mary quipped later that he certainly had danced with her in the "worst way."  Nonetheless, the two courted and had a basic understanding that they would marry, until something caused them to break up by 1841.  Only through the intercession of friends did the two resume a courtship in 1842.

The quick announcement of Lincoln's desire to "get hitched" as he called it have caused many researchers over the years to speculate that Mary Todd perhaps seduced him into marrying her.  The fact that their first child, Robert, was born on August 1, 1843 does perhaps lend credence to the speculation.  Of course, it is also possible that Mary became pregnant on their wedding night as the birth of Robert falls within the 9-month gestation period.  Unless someone stumbles upon a previously undiscovered letter between Abraham and Mary or finds a diary of either one, we'll never know for certain.

By most accounts, the Lincolns' marriage was not an easy one.  He was often gone from Springfield, traveling on the law circuit for weeks at a time. Lincoln could be distant and lost in thought, often not paying as much attention to his wife as she would have liked.  Mary was highly-strung, anxious, and prone to mood swings which could be withering for anyone subjected to them.  Modern historians consider her to have been suffering from bi-polar disorder (manic-depression).

Still, the Lincolns were devoted to one another and seemed to love one another very much.  He affectionately called her "Molly" or "Mother" after their children were born.  She referred to him as "Father" or "Husband."  He worried for her mental state after the deaths of their children Eddie (1850) and Willie (1862).  And she of course never recovered after her husband was assassinated as she sat by his side on the tragic night of April 14, 1865.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln.

The U.S. Constitution Turns 225

September 17, 2012 marked the 225th anniversary of the adoption of the United States Constitution, the document which remains the law of the land in our republic. To commemorate the anniversary of this founding document, TIME magazine has released a book titled "The Constitution: The Essential User's Guide" meant to help people today understand how it remains relevant to important issues facing our nation today.

For example, the book contains a detailed examination of the 14th Amendment, the so-called "Birthright Amendment" which guarantees U.S. citizenship to any person born in the United States.  This amendment was written to reverse the 1857 Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, when it ruled that no slaves   were citizens of the U.S.  The amendment guaranteed citizenship to the former slaves retroactively.  But now it's at the heart of a great debate in our nation since it also means that a child born to illegal (or legal) immigrants are U.S. citizens at birth.  Some U.S. Congressmen and Senators want to further amend the Constitution to prevent this from happening.  The authors of this TIME book hope to help people today understand the history of the amendment and why or why not it should itself be amended.

The Constitution was at the center of the debate between North and South in the decades leading up to the outbreak of secession and the American Civil War.  The Southern states of course wanted to perpetuate and spread slavery into new territories of the United States, while the North, including Abraham Lincoln wanted to contain it to where it already existed.  Once Lincoln was elected in 1860, a total of 11 states felt that they could legally secede from the Union, while Lincoln held that they could not.  

Many of the actions which Lincoln took during the Civil War were questioned on Constitutional grounds.  For example, the clause which permits the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus is not clear as to if Congress or the President holds the power to do so.  During the war, Lincoln chose to interpret the Constitution as giving the President the authority, and he took it.  Congress (made up of the Union states at this time, obviously) later granted him the authority to do so, and the Supreme Court upheld the Habeas Corpus Act decades later during WWI.

Many important Constitutional issues affect our nation even today.  Issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), and numerous others are constantly in the news.  TIME's "The Constitution: The Essential User's Guide" is available to help us all understand better this venerable document on its 225th anniversary.  With a forward by retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman ever to serve on the court, this book is an outstanding resource for those who wish to examine the Constitution as it relates to modern America.

Film Review: Death And The Civil War

The American Civil War holds the fascination of millions of people throughout our nation as well as around the world.  There is almost a romantic attachment to it for many as they read about the "Lost Cause," study the military strategies of the generals, and watch countless movies which depict the valor of the armies and individuals on the battlefields.  But for the people of 150 years ago who suffered the loss of a husband, a son, a brother, there was nothing remotely romantic about a war which caused death on a previously unimaginable scale.  The latest research places the estimated number of deaths at 750,000, or roughly 2.5 percent of the total American population (including both northern and southern states).  Projected to today's population figures, that equates to the loss of 7 million lives. More Americans died in the American Civil War than in all other American wars combined.

Debuting September 18, 2012 on the long-running history program American Experience on PBS is "Death And The Civil War."  Created by filmmaker Ric Burns (brother of Ken, creator of the masterpiece "The Civil War" for PBS in 1990), this film describes how profoundly the nation was affected by the slaughter of the war.  It's based upon the book "This Republic Of Suffering" written by the noted historian and president of Harvard University, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust.  The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 and was named to the New York Times "10 Best Books of 2008" by that paper's editors.  I've been asked by a publicist for this film to watch a preview copy and review it here on The Abraham Lincoln Blog.  I present it here.

As this documentary points out, both sides in the American Civil War were "woefully unprepared" for the hundreds of thousands of deaths.  There were no national cemeteries at the beginning of the war.  No plan to bury the dead, for identifying the bodies, for notifying the families.  No one, either Union or Confederate, could have known at the beginning of the war that mass death was coming.  Lincoln had asked for recruits to serve for a 90-day period, thinking the war would be brief, as did the leaders of the Confederacy.  Indeed, by June 1861, two months after Ft. Sumter, combined deaths stood at 20.  Realization didn't sink in until after First Bull Run (or Manassas) in July of that year that the war would not end quickly nor with a small number of casualties and death.

The film helps the viewer understand the concept of what a "good death" meant to Americans in the decades leading up to the war.  People expected to die at home, surrounded by family and loved ones, their final words recorded for posterity, perhaps.  They truly believed that in Heaven, their bodies would be whole again, restored to health.  The survivors could visit a grave, knowing that their departed lay in peace. But the war changed all that as their husbands and sons died alone or in the company of men they barely knew.  Records might indicate a soldier was barely injured, when in fact he had died.  Others were told their loved one had died, only to be stunned when the loved one came home alive. Many families never knew for sure what had happened; almost 140,000 Union dead remain unidentified.

Even as the war continued into 1862 and 1863, the governments of  both sides still didn't assume much, if any, responsibility for their soldiers, living or dead. A young woman named Clara Barton, who went on to found the American Red Cross, organized her own army of nurses to tend to the wounded.  The U.S. Sanitary Commission, a private organization, was also begun to treat the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union.  The Confederacy also had private relief efforts.

Still, there were no coordinated efforts to bury the dead soldiers until long after the war began.  Surviving troops of a particular battle might bury their comrades if they had the strength.  Townspeople occasionally joined in as they did after Gettysburg.  Many times, the dead were left where they fell, so that even into the late 1860's, bones were strewn across the scarred land.  The first concentrated effort to properly bury soldiers occurred in the late autumn of 1863, when the first "national cemetery" was opened in Gettysburg, PA.  Technically, though, the cemetery was then owned by the state.  It was that cemetery which was dedicated on November 19, 1863 when President Lincoln gave his immortal address.

The film spends time analyzing the Gettysburg Address with a full recitation of it, plus brief analysis by the interviewed historians. It points out, quite accurately, that in only 271 words, Lincoln was able to provide meaning to the deaths of the soldiers, to reassure Americans that "these dead shall not have died in vain."  That the cause for which they fought and died was a noble one, one to assure that government of the people would not die.  At this point in the war, unfortunately, more than half of the total deaths resulting from it were yet to occur.

After the war ended, the U.S. Government finally went into action to arrange for proper burials of as many remains as possible.  Congress passed legislation creating the National Cemetery system in 1867, appointing Edmund Whitman to coordinate the establishment of cemeteries, identification of as many of the dead as possible, and the proper burial of the them.  It should be noted that this effort was made for the Union troops, not the Confederate soldiers.  The Federal Government was not about to pay respect to the soldiers which sought to destroy the nation.  This, in turn, caused bitterness and outrage among the citizens of the newly-restored southern states.  So the citizens of the south, mostly women, set up their own organizations to provide a fitting burial for their own soldiers killed in action.  A couple of the historians in the film seem to think that the government in Washington was harsh in not taking care of the southern dead, but as Vincent Brown (Harvard) points out, the Confederacy and its soldiers fought for the right to have a slave-owning nation.

The film concludes with a fascinating look at how Memorial Day (or Decoration Day as it was called then) was begun in the late 1860's, both north and south, as the survivors wanted ways of commemorating their loved ones who fought for what they believed.

"Death And The Civil War" is a haunting, sobering, and deeply affective film.  It follows the now familiar method of historical documentaries by showing historical photos interspersed with interviews of various experts.  Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust is the main expert, since the film is based on her book I mentioned earlier.  Notable other historians in the film include Dr. David Blight (Yale) and Steven Hahn (Penn). Their insight is top notch as one would hope for from some of our greatest historians.

As can be expected of any documentary on American Experience, the film is gorgeous with outstanding cinematography, recreations, rare photos, and appropriate music.  The narration, by the actor Oliver Platt, is informative although I found the rhythm and pauses in his reading to be mildly distracting.

Given the topic of the film, it can be difficult to watch if the viewer happens to be squeamish.  Historical pictures of corpses, some in decay,  are shown, as are photos of skulls or skeletons.  Testimonies of those who buried the dead are read, complete with descriptive terms of "stench" and even "exploding corpses."  If you have a weak stomach or are easily affected by descriptions of death, be warned.

At only two hours in length, the film doesn't require a significant commitment to watch as those by Mr. Burns' brother, Ken do.  Still, I wish it was even 30 minutes longer so yet more information could have been presented.  Lincoln's assassination at the end of the Civil War, for example, also profoundly affected Americans for decades, yet this event is mentioned only very briefly in the film.  The deaths of the soldiers deeply moved him as well, a topic which he covered in his Second Inaugural Address in March 1865, only one month prior to his own demise.

"Death And The Civil War is a superbly crafted film and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is interested in the war.  PBS' American Experience is the most-watched history show on television for a reason, thanks to the quality of the programs it airs.  "Death And The Civil War" is no exception.  It is, quite simply, a triumph.  Congratulations to Mr. Burns, Dr. Faust, PBS, and "American Experience."  You may read more about the film and view a preview of it on the American Experience website.


"Death And The Civil War" premieres Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. on PBS.  Check local listings for showings on your local PBS station.

First Official Picture of Daniel Day-Lewis As Abraham Lincoln

Courtesy of The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL and www.slashfilm.com, here is the first official image of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis in full make up as Abraham Lincoln.  As nearly every Lincoln buff knows, Mr. Day-Lewis will star in Steven Spielberg's film "Lincoln" due for release on November 9, 2012.  Based on the book-which-will-not-die, Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," Spielberg's film is rumored to follow the final four months of the president's life.

I realize that makeup artists can work wonders, but this image makes it appear as though a previously-unknown photograph of the real Lincoln has been discovered.  It's stunning.  Let's hope that the film will be as breathtaking as this photo.