false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168669108m/36040.jpg 36040 2 <div>Abraham Lincoln has long dominated the pantheon of American presidents. From his lavish memorial in Washington and immortalization on Mount Rushmore, one might assume he was a national hero rather than a controversial president who came close to losing his 1864 bid for reelection. In <i>Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory</i>, Barry Schwartz aims at these contradictions in his study of Lincoln's reputation, from the president's death through the industrial revolution to his apotheosis during the Progressive Era and First World War.<br><br>Schwartz draws on a wide array of materials&#8212;painting and sculpture, popular magazines and school textbooks, newspapers and oratory&#8212;to examine the role that Lincoln's memory has played in American life. He explains, for example, how dramatic funeral rites elevated Lincoln's reputation even while funeral eulogists questioned his presidential actions, and how his reputation diminished and grew over the next four decades. Schwartz links transformations of Lincoln's image to changes in the society. Commemorating Lincoln helped Americans to think about their country's development from a rural republic to an industrial democracy and to articulate the way economic and political reform, military power, ethnic and race relations, and nationalism enhanced their conception of themselves as one people.<br><br>Lincoln's memory assumed a double aspect of "mirror" and "lamp," acting at once as a reflection of the nation's concerns and an illumination of its ideals, and Schwartz offers a fascinating view of these two functions as they were realized in the commemorative symbols of an ever-widening circle of ethnic, religious, political, and regional communities. The first part of a study that will continue through the present, <i>Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory</i> is the story of how America has shaped its past selectively and imaginatively around images rooted in a real person whose character and achievements helped shape his country's future. <br></div> 35951 2000 Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory total:6|5:2|4:1|3:3|2:0|1:0| 6 23 11 0 4 0 false false Wed Nov 18 14:23:50 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 13:42:47 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 20 06:00:13 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 06:00:13 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Aug 22 04:15:36 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 04:15:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu May 28 06:37:49 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 06:37:49 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 21 08:56:09 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 08:56:09 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jan 16 21:52:05 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 21:58:24 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 01 12:54:40 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 12:54:40 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Wed Sep 24 13:41:42 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 13:41:42 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Wed Sep 03 20:10:34 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 20:10:34 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Dec 18 15:43:35 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 15:43:35 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Aug 16 07:27:48 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 13 14:09:42 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=36040