SUMMER 2013 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Department of
HISTORY history.unl.edu
INSIDE THIS ISSUE BIG RED ROAD SHOW NEW FACULTY Q & A HISTORY HARVEST GROWS DIGITAL HISTORY IN ACTION
“Those unable to catalog the
past are doomed to repeat it.” -Lemony Snicket, The End
photo: James LeSueur; book cover courtsey of W.W. Norton & Co.
locating lincoln by Mikal Brotnov
Dr. Kenneth Winkle’s new monograph Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC. (published by W.W. Norton & Co.), transforms prior conceptual framings of Lincoln’s presidency. By using sensory, social, and gender histories, Dr. Winkle evokes human elements into the life of this often misinterpreted historical figure.
All history is defined as a story of choices, and Winkle utilizes the numerous options presented to Lincoln to illuminate his considerable forethought and long view. This same ability to make unpopular decisions, however, made Lincoln immensely unpopular. Among these choices stood, the issue of emancipation and whether or not it was a goal of the war. Adding to this pressure, Lincoln fielded advice from every corner of the political spectrum, but as
Winkle’s work demonstrates, Lincoln always sought common ground.
So often letters are crucial to the historian’s craft. Winkle’s Lincoln’s Citadel utilizes Lincoln’s letters to reinforce his affinity for wordsmithing. For Winkle, these letters revealed to him how Lincoln “could sum up an idea, or a choice, in just a few words.” “For example, with secession, Lincoln posed a choice between ballots and bullets and from that one can see how “these words were Lincoln’s most important and effective tool or even weapon in fighting the war,” Winkle said. Lincoln’s most crucial letter came during the Fort Sumter crisis when he presented the Confederacy with a choice between compromising or igniting a civil war.
Lincoln’s family also provided shelter from the omnidirectional forces of war. In exploring the role of Lincoln’s family, Winkle brings gender analysis into the Lincoln historiography. He also rescues Mary Todd from the side light and places her in the Washington D.C. hospitals where she worked with wounded soldiers. Building off the themes of family and fortress, Winkle highlights how Lincoln, who sought one of the loneliest professions, “exulted in his children,” and Winkle believes that Lincoln ultimately “found refuge in the lives of his family.”
In a powerful narrative, Lincoln’s Citadel elucidates how the Civil War transformed the city of Washington and how the city shaped Lincoln’s war experience and vice versa.