Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President | 
| Author: Thomas L. Krannawitter
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 62878
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 376
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0742559726
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7092
EAN: 9780742559721
Publication Date: August 25, 2008
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Product Description
In this reasoned argument against the prevailing orthodoxies of the right, left, and center, Krannawitter takes on all of Lincoln's detractors and reasserts his contemporary relevance. A heady mix of narrative history and political insights, Vindicating Lincoln reveals a man whose political and moral example sets him apart as the greatest President of the United States of America.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lincoln Defended October 4, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Make no mistake, this is not an unemotional analysis of the contemporary attacks on Lincoln, most or all of which are made by writers who are Libertarian or even neo-Confederate in their political views. The book is instead a passionate advocate's brief that seeks not merely to answer but to obliterate the anti-Lincoln arguments. Nor is Krannawitter respectful of the ostensible scholarship of the various proponents of these arguments. He tries to show that they are highly selective in their use of evidence, are not above stretching and twisting facts and are often unhistorical in their analysis of the past. Krannawitter is completely convinced that Lincoln was a great president and a good man who was devoted to what he considered to be a foundational American principle: That all men are created equal and endowed with certain natural rights.
Each of the chapters of the book discusses one of the main arguments raised by the Lincoln critics. So far as I can tell, Krannawitter plays fair in that he accurately sets out these anti-Lincoln arguments and the evidence offered to support them. Then he offers evidence and argument trying mercilessly to eviscerate the attacks on Lincoln (and sometimes the attacker as well).
To me, at least, some of the anti-Lincoln arguments seem to be easy targets (e. g. Lincoln as the "father" of modern Big Government; the Civil War was about oppressive economic policies favoring the North and not at all about slavery). Others are not so easy (e. g. was Lincoln a racist; was the Kansas-Nebraska Act pro-choice or pro-slavery). This is not the place to rehash the arguments. The reader can read them and make his or her own choice. I will say that for me Krannawitter's arguments are far the better.
The book is very well written. Arguments and facts, sometimes complicated, are clearly described. The prose moves pretty fluidly for the most part and is written with partisan passion. The book is fascinating and well worth reading, especially for readers who may not be familiar with the contemporary attacks on Lincoln.
 An Impossible Task September 3, 2008
8 out of 30 found this review helpful
In Vindicating Lincoln, Mr. Krannawitter attempts the impossible - to re-whitewash the reputation of one of the worst men to ever occupy the office of president. The problem for all Lincoln apologists remains that there is simply too much source material from the period that shows the Lincoln administration for what it was - a brutal military dictatorship that trampled on the Constitution, started an illegal and unnecessary war, and caused the deaths or maimings of millions of Americans, North and South, from combat, deprivation, and disease. Unfortunately for Lincoln apologists, President Lincoln did arrest and imprison 30,000 Northerners simply for opposing his policies; did shut down Northern newspapers when they spoke against the abuses of his regime; did approve the waging of total war on the South, specifically targeting the civilian population; did use his position to enrich his friends at the expense of Northern soldiers and civilians; did commit other acts that betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution, instead using military and police power to strengthen the central government at the expense of individual liberties. The Constitution did not die when the first shot was fired at Fort Sumpter. Lincoln, however, did his best to kill it, and that alone is enough to earn him the right to be called one of America's worst presidents.
 The Statesman August 26, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is an extended argument by an academic historian against the various ideas of a few opinion leaders in modern America who have disparaged the reputation of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. Some of the detractors are modern Libertarians, with an axe to grind against any big government. Others detest Mr. Lincoln for what they see to have been his blatant and unwarranted abuses of civil liberties during the Civil War. Still others (FDR liberals) love Mr. Lincoln, but for the wrong reasons.
I found the strongest part of this book to be its explanation and refutation of the political and intellectual contortions made by Senator John C. Calhoun both in defending a state's "right of secession" and explaining why slavery was good for the slave.
This book falters when Professor Krannawitter brings too much of his argument into the realm of present day politics. (I do not think Senator Obama's thoughts on Lincoln would have been negatively cited, but for this being a presidential election year.) The author is obviously a small government, natural rights conservative, which is fine--but his unrelenting style will wear on readers who might buy this book looking for a more balanced defense of someone who, in reality, should need no defense.
An eminently important book! Powerful, intelligent, and convincing! August 24, 2008
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
These words from the Declaration of Independence are the heart and soul of Abraham Lincoln's political philosophy. Based on the idea of government as a social contract--a government of the people, by the people, and for the people--they express the concept of natural rights.
Thomas L. Krannawitter, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Hillsdale College (Michigan), writes: "Saving the Union of the Constitution, preserving free elections, and placing slavery in the course of ultimate extinction were the goals for which Lincoln fought the Civil War. Unifying and justifying all of them is the principle that all men are created equal."
Krannawitter's brilliant work of scholarship is a devastating critique of historicism, revisionism, libertarianism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism--modern theories of government and morality that embrace relativism and deny the principle of equal rights.
Again, Professor Krannawitter writes, "Lincoln was consistent and unswerving in his demand that freedom, choice, and self-government be understood within the moral and political framework of the 'laws of nature and of Nature's God,' first and foremost in the natural right principle of human equality."
Lincoln's admirable statesmanship is in grave danger in the 21st century. Dr. Krannawitter clearly shows not only the relevance and importance of Lincoln's commitment to human equality for his own day, during the desperate days of the Civil War when the very existence of the Union was in peril, but also for our nation and world today.
Great men and women become the targets of those of lesser intelligence and meaner spirits. The greater the person, the more vicious the attacks. This has been true in the case of Lincoln. In recent decades, misguided and/or disgruntled critics have disparaged Lincoln for being a "tyrant," a "dictator," a proponent of "big government," a "war criminal," and a power-hungry despot who sought to destroy the Constitution.
Vindicating Lincoln should go a long way in dispelling such "Lincoln myths" that disparage our greatest president.
Two thumbs up for this magnificent work. Bravo, Mr. Krannawitter!
Best of Its Kind August 3, 2008
31 out of 36 found this review helpful
The best book of its kind -- and for now the only one of its kind.
Vindicating Lincoln is a most necessary corrective to the raft of atrocious, mendacious, and vindictive anti-Lincoln scholarship that has cropped up over the last 25 years at least. A perverse alliance has been forged between, on the one hand, far right libertarians and neo-Confederates and, on the other hand, far left politically correct and anti-American ideologues. They may not agree on much, but they agree that they have found a villain for all seasons: Abraham Lincoln.
This is the book for you if you have ever been puzzled by the arguments that Lincoln was a "tyrant," a "racist," the "father of big government," or that Lincoln cared nothing about slavery but fought the Civil War only protect the economic interests of the ruling class. This is also the book for you if all you know of Lincoln is his grand monument and the afterglow of his once great reputation, and want an honest assessment of why generations considered him the greatest American of them all -- greater even than Washington or any of the Founding generation.
Every anti-Lincoln myth is carefully stated, and understood exactly as its proponents wish to be understood, and then patiently demolished.
This is also perhaps the best book in a generation on the Civil War -- its causes, its justice, its necessity. Krannawitter clearly describes every step in the long path that led to war, and elucidates every controversy. He does justice to both sides, knowing full well that doing full justice to the arguments of the Confederate side not only serves intellectual honesty, but better illuminates the truthfulness and righteousness of Lincoln's case.
The Civil War was a necessary war, and Abraham Lincoln was a great man. It has a taken many years and an unholly alliance of liars and cranks to muddy the waters. But this one book will clear them up again, for all those who have eyes to see and a brain to think.
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