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"The Real Lincoln"
by Thomas J. Dilorenzo
A New Look at Abraham Lincoln,
His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
Abraham Lincoln | Thomas J. DiLorenzo
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Book Description
Publication Date: December 2, 2003
A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator
has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, and a monument in Washington, D.C., extol
his heroism and martyrdom. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? What if, instead of an
American hero who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged the bloodiest
war in american history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas
J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln
legend.
Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president
as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was
very limited in scope and highly decentralized—as the Founding Fathers intended—to a highly centralized, activist
state. Standing in his way, however, was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national
government, and its reliance on unfettered free trade. To accomplish his goals, Lincoln subverted the Constitution,
trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provacative
book, 600,000 American soldiers did not die for the honorable cause of ending slavery but for the dubious agenda
of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of the federal government, which has been tightening
its vise grip on our republic to this very day.
You will discover a side of Lincoln that you were probably never taught in school—a side that
calls into question the very myths that surround him and helps explain the true origins of a bloody, and perhaps,
unnecessary war.
"A devastating critique of America's most famous president."
—Joseph Sobran, commentator and nationally syndicated columnist
"Today's federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo gives an account of How this come about in The Real Lincoln."
—Walter E. Williams, from the foreword
"A peacefully negotiated secession was the best way to handle all the problems facing Americans in 1860. A
war of coercion was Lincoln's creation. It sometimes takes a century or more to bring an important historical event
into perspective. This study does just that and leaves the reader asking, 'Why didn't we know this before?'"
—Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy, Emory University
"Professor DiLorenzo has penetrated to the very heart and core of American history with a laser beam of fact
and analysis."
—Clyde Wilson, professor of history, University of South Carolina, and editor, The John C. Calhoun Papers
Editorial Reviews
"A devastating critique of America's most famous president."
—Joseph Sobran, commentator and nationally syndicated columnist
"Today's federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo gives an account of how this came about in The Real Lincoln."
—Walter E. Williams, from the foreword
"A peacefully negotiated secession was the best way to handle all the problems facing America in 1860. A war
of coercion was Lincoln's creation. It sometimes takes a century of more to bring an important historical event
into perspective. This study does just that and leaves the reader asking, 'Why didn't we know this before?' "
—Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy, Emory University
"Professor DiLorenzo has penetrated to the very heart and core of American history with a laser beam of fact
and analysis."
—Clyde Wilson, professor of history, University of South Carolina, and editor, The John C. Calhoun Papers
From the Inside Flap
A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator
has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, and a monument in Washington, D.C., extol
his heroism and martyrdom. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? What if, instead of an
American hero who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged the bloodiest
war in american history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas
J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln
legend.
Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president
as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was
very limited in scope and highly decentralized?as the Founding Fathers intended?to a highly centralized, activist
state. Standing in his way, however, was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national
government, and its reliance on unfettered free trade. To accomplish his goals, Lincoln subverted the Constitution,
trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provacative
book, 600,000 American soldiers did not die for the honorable cause of ending slavery but for the dubious agenda
of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of the federal government, which has been tightening
its vise grip on our republic to this very day.
You will discover a side of Lincoln that you were probably never taught in school?a side that
calls into question the very myths that surround him and helps explain the true origins of a bloody, and perhaps,
unnecessary war.
"A devastating critique of America's most famous president."
Joseph Sobran, commentator and nationally syndicated columnist
"Today's federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo gives an account of How this come about in The Real Lincoln."
Walter E. Williams, from the foreword
"A peacefully negotiated secession was the best way to handle all the problems facing Americans in 1860. A
war of coercion was Lincoln's creation. It sometimes takes a century or more to bring an important historical event
into perspective. This study does just that and leaves the reader asking, 'Why didn't we know this before?'"
Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy, Emory University
"Professor DiLorenzo has penetrated to the very heart and core of American history with a laser beam of fact
and analysis."
Clyde Wilson, professor of history, University of South Carolina, and editor, The John C. Calhoun Papers
More About the Author
Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Biography
Thomas J. DiLorenzo is the author of The Real Lincoln and How Capitalism Saved America. A professor of economics
at Loyola College in Maryland and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, he has written for the Wall
Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, Reader's Digest, Barron's, and many other publications. He lives
in Baltimore, Maryland.
Customer Reviews
487 of 578 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A hackle-raiser for sure! March 26, 2002
By Kerry Walters TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
If there are any sacred cows in America, the one at the head of the herd has got to be Abraham
Lincoln. Our culture gleefully villifies almost everyone. Psycho-biographies, in which the darkest interior rooms
of the subject are exposed to light, are the rage these days. But somehow Lincoln for the most part has managed
to escape all this. He's still the great American hero, venerated by layperson and scholar alike, sometimes to
the point of embarrassing hagiography. (I once knew a history professor, for example, who insisted that students
refer to Lincoln, both in class discussions and in term papers, as "MR. Lincoln." His class could just
as well have been offered by the theology department.)
Thomas DiLorenzo refuses to genuflect before Lincoln's altar. In "The Real Lincoln", a book that's guaranteed
to infuriate a wide audience, ranging from Civil War buffs to Lincoln scholars to African-Americans to political
liberals to history traditionalists, DiLorenzo claims that Lincoln's real historical legacy is the strong centralized
state that characterizes the American political system today. From first to last, claims DiLorenzo, Lincoln's political
vision was the creation of a Whiggish empire of protectionist tariffs, government subsidized railroads, and nationalization
of the money supply. In the first year and a half of his administration, he pushed through much of this agenda.
The average tariff rate tripled, railroads began raking in government money (a "war necessity"), and
the National Currency Acts monopolized the money supply.
So far none of this is terribly alarming. Even admirers of Lincoln will admit much of what DiLorenzo says about
Lincoln's economic dream and Whig leanings. But where DiLorenzo begins to stir up a storm is when he claims (1)
that Lincoln basically allowed an unnecessary and horribly bloody war to occur in order to further his political
vision of a strong state; (2) Lincoln was a "constitutional dictator"; and (3) Lincoln was never terribly
concerned with slavery as a moral injustice.
In reference to the first point, DiLorenzo points out that the right to secession was simply taken for granted
by most Americans prior to Lincoln's administration because they saw the country as a voluntary association of
states. Lincoln didn't "save" the Union so much as he destroyed it as a voluntary association. In reference
to the second point, DiLorenzo provides example after example of Lincoln's disregard--supposedly in the interests
of the state--for the Constitution: launching a military invasion without Congressional consent; suspension of
habeas corpus; censorship of newspapers; meddling with elections; confiscating private property; and so on. Finally,
in reference to the last point--which is probably the book's most inflammatory one--DiLorenzo argues that Lincoln
rarely mentioned the issue of slavery in political speeches until it became politically expedient to begin doing
so. His opposition to slavery was always based on what he feared was its economic dangers, not on moral principle.
As his contemporaries accurately noted, Lincoln the "Great Emancipator" was never an abolitionist. Even
after the Emancipation Proclamation, he was willing to tolerate slaveholding in nonsecessionist states. His ultimate
solution--one that infuriated abolitionists such as Horace Greeley--was to colonize American blacks "back"
to Africa or the Caribbean.
Much of DiLorenzo's claims about Lincoln's activities will be familiar. What's new about the book is the overall
unfavorable portrait of Lincoln that emerges as DiLorenzo discusses them. It may be the case that DiLorenzo has
swung too far in the opposite direction from conventional Lincoln hagiography. But it may also be the case that
his book will encourage more moderate and accurate portrayals of Lincoln in the future. One can admire Lincoln
without worshipping him.
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311 of 385 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars When a book is controversial - check its critics October 16, 2006
DiLorenzo's book challenged virtually everything I thought I knew about Lincoln, so I did the logical thing - I
looked into what points his critics cited in panning his book. I was surprised by what I found. Most critics challenged
his "right" to be a historian, slamming him for citing the wrong edition of a book (right page, wrong
edition), or citing to the wrong page of a book. Other criticisms were conclusory and not fact-based. When the
smoke had cleared, it seemed that the major criticisms were nits picked by those adored Lincoln. None confronted
DiLorenzo's facts. (This is a far cry from, for example, the Michael A. Bellesiles book, "Arming America:
The Origins of a National Gun Culture", whose critics shredded the book on a factual basis.)
So I read the book.
And was blown away.
Here is the explanation for how America went from the land of the free to the land of the government-dominated.
Here is a thorough explanation how the Federal Government went from a minimalist government with scant intrusion
into the lives of its people, to the modern day Leviathan which consumes 1/3 of every dollar we earn and gives
us endless regulation and grief. Here is the seed of the welfare state, the precursor to Roosevelt's "New
Deal" and Johnson's "Great Society" - and the beginning of the end of the Constitution.
Lincoln locked up thousands of those who disagreed with him. He cared not at all about slavery as a moral issue.
He created the sort of Federal spending on programs that were previously successful private ventures, and which,
as government programs, have put us trillions of dollars in debt. He destroyed the sovereignty of the states and
laid the groundwork for George Bush to imprison people without charges, without access to counsel, without the
right to confront accusers and ultimately without right to trial.
Dilorenzo's book helped me to see Lincoln in a new light. Lincoln: Responsible for more American deaths than any
other president (nearly as many were killed in Lincoln's conquest of the Southern states than in all other wars
combined). Lincoln: A war criminal who sent armies to attack the civilians of the South (not just Sherman, but
all his generals). Lincoln: Consolidating government power over the people though the use of gun and bayonet.
Lincoln: America's Joe Stalin.
Read this book.
Format:Hardcover
William Manchester used the phrase 'American Caesar' to describe General Douglas MacArthur, but it applies much
more fittingly to Abraham Lincoln, America's first (and God willing only) full-fledged military dictator. The gravedigger
of the U.S. Constitution, Lincoln buried the founders' Union as completely as Lenin buried the Romanovs. And like
Lenin, Lincoln built an empire on bayonets, brutality, and centralized power. As historian Richard Bensel (quoted
by Thomas DiLorenzo in the introduction to this book) wrote, any student of the American state should begin his
reading with 1865. Whatever happened before then no longer has any relevance.
DiLorenzo's little book began rocking conservative and libertarian circles even before its publication, proving
what someone once said, that the way to tell the difference between the two schools of thought is to ask them what
they think about Lincoln. To the outrage of the fans of centralized government, DiLorenzo is not only an excellent
writer but a skilled researcher too. Votaries of Saint Abraham's iconic image have an awful lot of 'splainin' to
do. In fact, as DiLorenzo notes, much of the writing on Lincoln over the decades has been exactly this: historians
rationalizing Lincoln's decidedly un-godlike words and deeds. Whether a reader is willing to see through this fog
depends on how open she is to challenging established 'truths.'
Lincoln's defenders often employ the slander that criticizing the Great Emancipator is the moral equivalent of
defending slavery.
But history shows that slavery ended around the world during that era, and no place required the bloody war Lincoln
waged. DiLorenzo proves that throughout his life, up to and including the War, Lincoln's driving force was his
devotion to Henry Clay's 'American System' of internal improvement, nationalized banking, and a powerful central
government. As DiLorenzo shows, a confederacy of states exercising their (previously unquestioned) right to secession
would have been an intolerable obstacle to Lincoln's driving ambition.
DiLorenzo also catalogues Lincoln's wartime offenses against the Constitution, the people (North and South alike),
the Southern states, and the very 'Union' he was allegedly trying to save. If for no other reason than Lincoln's
deliberate strategy of waging war against civilians -- DiLorenzo shows that the policy came straight from Lincoln's
own hand -- it's hard to deny historian Lee Kennett's conclusion (quoted on page 197-198) that a victorious Confederacy
would have been entirely justified in executing Abraham Lincoln for crimes against humanity.
Most damning to the modern myth of Lincoln as a man tormented by America's original sin of slavery, DiLorenzo shows
that the Great Emancipator never in his life accepted the fundamental equality of all persons. Until his death,
he denied that free African-Americans could be assimilated into the US population. His solution was to 'return'
all blacks, even native-born ones, to their 'homeland' of west Africa, or exile them to the Caribbean or Central
America.
Like the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Abraham Lincoln's towering reputation stands on feet of clay, propped
up by generations of myth-making, political opportunism, and -- yes -- lies. But nothing so fundamentally flawed
can long endure. Toppling the Lincoln of myth is essential not only for recovering the promise of America's founding,
but also for healing the social fractures spreading since his death. Thomas DiLorenzo has not only written an excellent
book, but has performed a valuable and necessary service.
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