Mourning Lincoln

chellers

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Martha Hodes (Author)
Yale University Press (February 24, 2015)

The news of Abraham Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865, just days after Confederate surrender, astounded the war-weary nation. Massive crowds turned out for services and ceremonies. Countless expressions of grief and dismay were printed in newspapers and preached in sermons. Public responses to the assassination have been well chronicled, but this book is the first to delve into the personal and intimate responses of everyday people—Northerners and Southerners, soldiers and civilians, black people and white, men and women, rich and poor.

Through deep and thoughtful exploration of diaries, letters, and other personal writings penned during the spring and summer of 1865, Martha Hodes captures the full range of reactions to the president's assassination—far more diverse than public expressions would suggest. She tells a story of shock, glee, sorrow, anger, blame, and fear. “’Tis the saddest day in our history,” wrote a mournful man. “Glorious News!” a Lincoln enemy exulted. “Old Lincoln is dead, and I will kill the goddamned Negroes now,” an angry white southerner ranted. Hodes brings to life a key moment of national uncertainty and confusion, when competing visions of the country's future proved irreconcilable and hopes for racial justice in the aftermath of the Civil War slipped from the nation's grasp.

About the Author
Martha Hodes is Professor of History at New York University. She is the author of two previous prize-winning books, The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century and White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the Nineteenth-Century South. She lives in New York City and Swarthmore, PA.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/030019580X/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

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