Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest

By Jan Morris

Book Overview

A unique and stimulating combination of travel journal, fully researched biography, and insightful history, from a respected travel writer, features an exploration of the many facets of the Lincoln legend including the myths, the man's wit, and his many tragedies.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684855151
• ISBN13: 9780684855158
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

part history, part stream-of-consciousness, part-travelogue

Jan Morris starts off rolling her eyes at the Lincoln she received in school books in her native England. She travels Kentucky and Illinois and scoffs at the obese men and women waddling about the aisles of rural Wal-Marts and 7-11s. Is this the legacy of Lincoln's backwoods Kentucky? She notes that Lincoln's parents was the 19th century embodiment of "white trash" and that had Lincoln been born in the 20th century, it would have been in a trailer (the log cabin equivalent of today). She calls them as she sees them: her Lincoln is a backwoods man, a know-it-all, who became a big business lawyer and used the slavery issue as his ticket to the White House. She sees a gangly oddball of enormous drive who miraculously remains a "nice man" despite of his melancholia, burning ambition, dreadful wife, sneakiness, and distinction of presiding over more American deaths from war than any other President. Morris writes well, at times lyrically, and when she conjures up Lincoln receiving a visitor in the White House, or trudging up the street for yet one more Matthew Brady photograph, you are there with her. She also imagines a meeting, at the end of the war, between the "marble model" Robert E. Lee, and the "gorilla" Lincoln, a meeting that never actually occurred but is fun to think about nonetheless. She falls under the spell this long-dead man still casts and becomes an admirer, though offers the caveat that Lincoln started America on its path to constantly playing global cop - a thesis she offers as an aside but is certainly worth thinking about. The American soldier occupying Baghdad is a linear descendent of the Union solider occupying Richmond in her view. This is a short, thoughtful volume that adds another angle to the Lincoln story. You might disagree with her assertions that Lincoln was essentially an artist but this should not stop you from reading this quirky, essentially personal book.

Just what is the American obsession with Abe?

This is an enjoyable readable book froma Brit's point of view.

A Refreshing View of Lincoln

When this book opened with a comparison of Abraham Lincoln to grape jelly (each a ubiquitous presence in American life), I wasn't sure what to expect. But I had never read anything by Jan Morris that wasn't well-written and unique. This little book on our greatest president is a gem. It is helpful to see ourselves as we are seen by non-Americans, so thank heavens Jan Morris, one of the greatest travel writers of all time, has graced us with numerous visits and reflections over her career.

Portrait of a spectacular common man

Friends and foreigners often have a wonderful gift of being able to see ourselves as we truly are, which is usually somewhat different and sometimes even better than we think of ourselves. Jan Morris, in this engaging and utterly charming biography of Abraham Lincoln, fails to offer that insight. It's a good story, shucked of the religious fervor with which many people praise Lincoln, but she seems to stumble on the most element feature of Lincoln -- his abiding faith in the common man. As Morris points out, in this age of debunking heroes, few men were ever more unsuited for the presidency than Abraham Lincoln. Plain and simple, he was a country bumpkin. Yet it is precisely for this reason that Lincoln is arguably the nation's finest president. Like Harry Truman, he represented the people; his greatest speeches expressed a boundless faith in the individual and in America. Granted, she's British. She has that innate British belief in the duty of "the better class" in society to do good for the common person. Morris doesn't understand the instinctive American dislike of being bossed around, of anyone telling them what to do. She thinks in terms of "peace, order and good government." Americans celebrate the ability of rebels to succeed. In England, the top hatted image of nobility is that of someone with a duty to society; in America, the image of the pompous nobility is that of someone who needs to slip on a banana peel. Lincoln grew up in the era when American identity was being forged. He was six years old when the War of 1812 ended; that was the time when astute observers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville outlined the innate character of Americans. The Civil War was the clash of two fundamental American principles; first, every person's "right to do as I please," and, second, "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Lincoln was a common man. In today's terms, as Morris pointed out, his parents would be "trailer trash." He worked all of his life to rise above his humble beginnings. He instinctively understood the common person's desire to be free, and the freedom to do better; a principle nicely expressed in a speech at Peoria on Oct. 16, 1854, "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." It's an attitude that is fundamentally opposite the British mentality, which believes "Good men have a duty to rule others for the benefit of the governed." Lincoln wasn't an accident. He reflected the best of his era, a time when President Benito Juarez of Mexico could assert, "Peace is respect for the rights of others." Canada became independent in 1867, just two years after Lincoln died. Lincoln was a genius in expressing the American desire for freedom; Morris fails to understand the extent of this desire for freedom. Her great advantage, in viewing Lincoln as an outsider, is a lack of hero worship. Had Lincoln been in off

A Stroll with Abe

First of all, some negatives: the book could have done withsome acquaintance with recent Lincoln scholarship. For example, onLincoln's atheism, there exists evidence from independent witnesses that Abe was secretly 'dunked' i.e. baptised into the German Baptist Church, the faith of his mother. Also, the Ann Ruttledge story (the love of Lincoln's youth) has been too well verified to be doubted, despite the cloying sentimentality attached to the story, rightly castigated by the author. On the Civil War, there are egregious errors - General George Pickett was never Lee's 'second-in-command' and Appromattox Manor House, which never existed, stands in for the McClean House at the village of Appomattox Court House, which seems to be confused with Grant's HQ at City Point. Yet, the book has merits. For admirers of Lincoln (and this is one) there is the winning over of a doubter, as the author once was. There are fresh insights and the book makes the reader almost an eavesdropper was the author stolls with Old Abe through his career. Despite the persistence of the hard-nosed politician in the war-time President, Jan Morris is correct in showing how Lincoln somehow transcended his time of trial as an artist might overcome his vicissitudes and produce a great artistic work. For the Lincoln detractors (and they are many!) there is the challenge of unravelling Morris' change of heart in succumbing to the spell of Lincoln, without subscribing to Lincoln mythology. Do not read this book as a biography of Lincoln, rather it is an essay on one person's encounters with the man. Use it as an introduction to the pursuit of the greatest and most elusive of American Presidents. END