FAKE HISTORY
The Party of Lincoln has quite a history of wrongly attributing quotes to, y’know, Lincoln, going back to the time the Great Communicator put his words in the Great Emancipator’s mouth.
Harold Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He is the author of many books, including Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America, and The Civil War in 50 Objects, with the New-York Historical Society.
Dirty Tricks
Racism in New York was rampant during the 1864 presidential campaign, and the anti-emancipation newspaper New York World used every dirty trick in the book to slander Abraham Lincoln and derail his reelection bid, including spreading rumors of a mixed-race orgy sanctioned by the Republican Party. In his new book, The Civil War in 50 Objects, historian Harold Holzer tells the story of how Lincoln almost fell for it.
Emancipation
On Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Harold Holzer on Lincoln’s actions on that fateful day.
Historical Fiction
Did Lincoln really do that? Was Mary Todd really there? Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, author of Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America: A Companion Book for Young Readers to the Steven Spielberg Film Lincoln, and a consultant on the movie, picks out what’s true and false in Spielberg’s movie—and says in the end it’s not the details that matter.