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American Foundation History
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Book Synopsis American Foundations by : Helmut K. Anheier
Download or read book American Foundations written by Helmut K. Anheier and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foundations play an essential part in the philanthropic activity that defines so much of American life. No other nation provides its foundations with so much autonomy and freedom of action as does the United States. Liberated both from the daily discipline of the market and from direct control by government, American foundations understandably attract great attention. As David Hammack and Helmut Anheier note in this volume, "Americans have criticized foundations for... their alleged conservatism, liberalism, elitism, radicalism, devotion to religious tradition, hostility to religion—in short, for commitments to causes whose significance can be measured, in part, by the controversies they provoke. Americans have also criticized foundations for ineffectiveness and even foolishness." Their size alone conveys some sense of the significance of American foundations, whose assets amounted to over $530 billion in 2008 despite a dramatic decline of almost 22 percent in the previous year. And in 2008 foundation grants totaled over $45 billion. But what roles have foundations actually played over time, and what distinctive roles do they fill today? How have they shaped American society, how much difference do they make? What roles are foundations likely to play in the future? This comprehensive volume, the product of a three-year project supported by the Aspen Institute's program on the Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy, provides the most thorough effort ever to assess the impact and significance of the nation's large foundations. In it, leading researchers explore how foundations have shaped—or failed to shape—each of the key fields of foundation work. American Foundations takes the reader on a wide-ranging tour, evaluating foundation efforts in education, scientific and medical research, health care, social welfare, international relations, arts and culture, religion, and social change.
Book Synopsis American Foundations by : Mark Dowie
Download or read book American Foundations written by Mark Dowie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-08-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In American Foundations, Mark Dowie argues that organized philanthropy is on the verge of an evolutionary shift that will transform America's nearly 50,000 foundations from covert arbiters of knowledge and culture to overt mediators of public policy and aggressive creators of new orthodoxy. He questions the wisdom of placing so much power at the disposal of nondemocratic institutions. As American wealth expands, old foundations such as Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Pew, and MacArthur have grown exponentially, while newer trusts such as Mott, Johnson, Packard, Kellogg, Hughes, Annenberg, Hewlett, Duke, and Gates have surpassed them. Foundation assets now total close to $400 billion. Though this is a tiny sum compared to corporate and government treasuries, and foundation grants still total less than 10 percent of contributions made by individuals, foundations have power and influence far beyond their wealth. Their influence derives from the conditional nature of their grant making, their power from its leverage. Unlike previous historians of philanthropy who have focused primarily on the grant maker, Dowie examines foundations from the public's perspective. He focuses on eight key areas in which foundations operate: education, science, health, environment, food, energy, art, and human services. He also looks at their imagination, or lack thereof, and at the strained relationship between American foundations and American democracy. Dowie believes that foundations deserve to exist and that they can assume an increasingly vital role in American society, but only if they transform themselves from private to essentially public institutions. The reforms he proposes to make foundations more responsive to pressing social problems and more accountable to the public will almost certainly start an important national debate.
Book Synopsis Foundations of the American Century by : Inderjeet Parmar
Download or read book Foundations of the American Century written by Inderjeet Parmar and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inderjeet Parmar reveals the complex interrelations, shared mindsets, and collaborative efforts of influential public and private organizations in the building of American hegemony. Focusing on the involvement of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations in U.S. foreign affairs, Parmar traces the transformation of America from an "isolationist" nation into the world's only superpower, all in the name of benevolent stewardship. Parmar begins in the 1920s with the establishment of these foundations and their system of top-down, elitist, scientific giving, which focused more on managing social, political, and economic change than on solving modern society's structural problems. Consulting rare documents and other archival materials, he recounts how the American intellectuals, academics, and policy makers affiliated with these organizations institutionalized such elitism, which then bled into the machinery of U.S. foreign policy and became regarded as the essence of modernity. America hoped to replace Britain in the role of global hegemon and created the necessary political, ideological, military, and institutional capacity to do so, yet far from being objective, the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations often advanced U.S. interests at the expense of other nations. Incorporating case studies of American philanthropy in Nigeria, Chile, and Indonesia, Parmar boldly exposes the knowledge networks underwriting American dominance in the twentieth century.
Download or read book AMER FOUNDATION HIST written by Anonymous and published by Wentworth Press. This book was released on 2016-08-24 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Book Synopsis Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History by : Lawrence J. Friedman
Download or read book Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History written by Lawrence J. Friedman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents professional historians addressing the dominant issues and theories offered to explain the history of American philanthropy and its role in American society. The essays develop and enlighten the major themes proposed by the books' editors, oftentimes taking issue with each other in the process. The overarching premise is that philanthropic activity in America has its roots in the desires of individuals to impose their visions of societal ideals or conceptions of truth upon their society. To do so, they have organized in groups, frequently defining themselves and their group's role in society in the process.
Book Synopsis American Foundation for the Blind by : American Foundation for the Blind
Download or read book American Foundation for the Blind written by American Foundation for the Blind and published by . This book was released on 1952 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis A Versatile American Institution by : David C. Hammack
Download or read book A Versatile American Institution written by David C. Hammack and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2013-02-27 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's grantmaking foundations have grown rapidly over the course of recent decades, even in the face of financial and economic crises. Foundations have a great deal of freedom, enjoy widespread legitimacy, and wield considerable influence. In this book, David Hammack and Helmut Anheier follow up their edited volume, American Foundations, with a comprehensive historical account of what American foundations have done with that independence and power. While philanthropic foundations play important roles in other parts of the world, the U.S. sector stands out as exceptional. Nowhere else are they so numerous, prominent, or autonomous. What have been the main contributions of philanthropic foundations to American society? And what might the future hold for them? A Versatile American Institution considers foundations in a new way. Previous accounts typically focused narrowly on their organization, donors, and leaders, and their intentions—but not on the outcome of philanthropy. Rather than looking at foundations in a vacuum, Hammack and Anheier consider their roles and contributions in the context of their times and their economic and political circumstances.
Book Synopsis American Foundation History ... by :
Download or read book American Foundation History ... written by and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Author :Ellen Condliffe Lagemann Publisher :University of Chicago Press ISBN 13 :9780226467801 Total Pages :372 pages Book Rating :4.4/5 (678 download)
Book Synopsis The Politics of Knowledge by : Ellen Condliffe Lagemann
Download or read book The Politics of Knowledge written by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-05 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Carnegie Corporation, among this country's oldest and most important foundations, has underwritten projects ranging from the writings of David Riesman to Sesame Street. Lagemann's lively history focuses on how foundations quietly but effectively use power and private money to influence public policies.
Book Synopsis Philanthropy in America by : Olivier Zunz
Download or read book Philanthropy in America written by Olivier Zunz and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How philanthropy has shaped America in the twentieth century American philanthropy today expands knowledge, champions social movements, defines active citizenship, influences policymaking, and addresses humanitarian crises. How did philanthropy become such a powerful and integral force in American society? Philanthropy in America is the first book to explore in depth the twentieth-century growth of this unique phenomenon. Ranging from the influential large-scale foundations established by tycoons such as John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and the mass mobilization of small donors by the Red Cross and March of Dimes, to the recent social advocacy of individuals like Bill Gates and George Soros, respected historian Olivier Zunz chronicles the tight connections between private giving and public affairs, and shows how this union has enlarged democracy and shaped history. Demonstrating that America has cultivated and relied on philanthropy more than any other country, Philanthropy in America examines how giving for the betterment of all became embedded in the fabric of the nation's civic democracy.
Book Synopsis Abigail and John by : David Bruce Smith
Download or read book Abigail and John written by David Bruce Smith and published by Liberty Bell Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, and his mother Clarice Smith, world renowned artist, comes this compelling and insightful historical biography of Abigail and John Adams. This unique nonfiction children’s book tells the story of one of America’s most-treasured couples alongside stunning and original illustrations. Abigail and John presents readers the opportunity to view prominent scenes in American history through the remarkable lives of one of the country’s most beloved couples—the Adamses. Exploring the historical significance of a partnership that spanned over five decades, Abigail and John details the love they shared for each other and the country. From carefree childhoods to years of war, to the births of their children, and the beginning of a new nation, Abigail and Johnlooks into the unique roles the Adamses played in the formation of America, and contributions and sacrifices they made for the young country. Praise Abigail & John “Abigail & John invites young readers into the partnership of America's second president John Adams, and his wife and closest advisor, Abigail Smith Adams. David Bruce Smith's fresh take on these well-known historical figures, animated by Clarice Smith's charming illustrations, is sure to give students new insights into the early years of our country's history.” ~ Margot Lee Shetterly, Bestselling author of Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race “Abigail & John delivers a charming portrait of a love story that bloomed in the midst of a revolution, a partnership that gave America two of its first six presidents – John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams. Their joint journey, described in more than a thousand letters they exchanged, is an exciting and timeless tale.” ~ David O. Stewart, Bestselling author of The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution Abigail & John teaches young readers not only historical facts but introduces them to the strong union and lasting bond between John and Abigail Adams and how it shaped our new nation. An excellent addition to any library. – Trinka Hakes Noble, Bestselling author and illustrator of American history books for young readers “Abigail & John is a wonderful addition to the literature on our early American history for our young readers. Engagingly written, brilliantly illustrated, it should be “must read” for every school child. I’m sure teachers across America will welcome it as a new, handsome resource for their classrooms.” ~ Alex Nyrges Director & CEO Virginia Museum of Fine Arts “Children and adults alike will cherish the wonderfully illustrated true story of love and enduring strength as Abigail and John Adams—in what was surely a partnership of equals—overcome daunting challenges and together change the world. An exciting start to what promises to be a brilliant series.” ~ Ed Lengel, Bestselling author of General George Washington "This is a beautifully told love story of one of the earliest power couples in American history. The story and the illustrations will appeal to readers of all ages with a nod to graphic novels. Abigail & John is a well needed positive American history primer using excerpts from the couple’s correspondence. The nuanced language and setting used to convey the story acknowledges a sophisticated reader of any age. The illustrations by renowned artist Clarice Smith enhance the story with a dynamic quality of movement. The images are beautifully aligned with the story making it visually stunning. This book demonstrates the importance of art in telling the story and both artist and author have set the bar high.” ~ Neme Alperstein, Library of Congress Teaching With Primary Sources Mentor “Abigail & John is a heart-warming yet honest account of America's most celebrated founding couple. With charming illustrations that bring Abigail and John Adams' partnership to life, and beautifully-written text that engages equally well when read aloud as when read silently, this highly-informative history of early America will be treasured by children and parents alike”. ~ Louise Mirrer, Ph.D., President & CEO, New-York Historical Society Louise Mirrer, Ph.D. President and CEO New York Historical Society “Abigail & John invites young readers to meet a couple that was both extraordinary and ahead of their time, yet flawed and prone to individual struggles as we humans all are. The vignettes throughout the book weave together personal and global events, enriched with original art.” ~ Erin Carlson Mast CEO & Executive Director, Lincoln Cottage. "What a lovely, humanizing dual-biography of these revered founding mother and father. Abigail and John are true equals in this narrative, gifting readers a wonderful introduction and inspiring summary of their joint efforts and sacrifices for their new democracy, their affection and support for one another. The illustrations are works-of-art - inviting, evocative --beautiful punctuations to each life stage described in the text and the perfect complement to the book's presentation of the Adamses as the living, breathing, and extraordinarily strong human beings they were." ~ L.M Elliott, bestselling author of Give Me Liberty, Hamilton and Peggy and Under the War Torn Sky “As the leader of an organization committed to advancing lifelong learning in history, I am delighted that David Bruce Smith and Clarice Smith have created this vitally important, beautiful, and compelling nonfiction resource for young people. They have made history, and women’s history, come to life!” ~ Phoebe Stein, Executive Director, Maryland Humanities "What a gift David Bruce Smith and Clarice Smith’s Abigail & John is to our families, kids and parents alike. In their graceful hands, words and illustrations tell such a compelling story about one of our nation’s original power couples. With prose that approaches the poetic and lines and color that elevate those words these masterful storytellers leave us grateful for the reawakening of this important part of our history. Two thumbs up from this fan!" ~ Edgar Dobie, Executive Producer and President of Arena Stage "For David Bruce Smith it is a matter of utmost urgency that all Americans understand the story of our nation and how the lessons of that history can lead us to greater justice and human flourishing. The late Bruce Cole, who was David Bruce Smith’s close colleague and collaborator, used to warn the nation against historical amnesia: books like Abigail and John give us good reason to hope that the rising new generation of citizens will be dedicated to building an even brighter future for America. This volume, engagingly illustrated by Clarice Smith, is the first in the Grateful American Book Series, an initiative for which we should all be thankful. ~ Michael B. Poliakoff, Ph.D. is the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni “Exquisite illustrations, coupled with compelling prose, offer readers of Abigail and John a rich and moving journey into the personal and political lives of America’s first power couple. Young readers will be captivated by Clarice Smith’s artistry and David’s Smith graceful writing. How the intimate feelings of affection between Adams’s animated their politics is powerful story that is conveyed brilliantly by the Smiths. Abigail and John is a triumph.” ~ Peter S. Carmichael, Fluhrer Professor of History, Gettysburg College. “David Bruce Smith has captured the special relationship between John and Abigail Adams and their part in forming a nation in a way that kids will both understand and enjoy. A great read for young and old alike.” ~ Chris Stevenson, Author of Gabriel Cooper and the Drum of Destiny “Too often we look on the American Founders as icons, statue-like figures whose world-historical greatness raises them above the status of mere mortals. When we do this, we forget their humanity. No one who reads Abigail & John will make that mistake, however. Here we are permitted to see the two Adamses as real people, full and equal partners in one of the great marriages in American history, a marriage that carried through all the most critical events in early United States history, without ever losing any of its intimacy and joy. Truly a book to be grateful for.” ~ Dr. Wilfred M. McClay, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma “David Bruce Smith and Clarice Smith have collaborated beautifully on a radical, yet long overdue, concept for historical works; that success is often the product of a couple and not solely the male partner’s accomplishment. Young readers will be treated to a rich narrative of the union between Abigail and John Adams told through easily readable prose and inviting illustrations”. ~ Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, Ed.D. | Head of School Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School
Book Synopsis An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (10th Anniversary Edition) by : Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Download or read book An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (10th Anniversary Edition) written by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Now part of the HBO docuseries "Exterminate All the Brutes," written and directed by Raoul Peck Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.
Book Synopsis 1919 The Year That Changed America by : Martin W. Sandler
Download or read book 1919 The Year That Changed America written by Martin W. Sandler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-11-07 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 1919 was a world-shaking year. America was recovering from World War I and black soldiers returned to racism so violent that that summer would become known as the Red Summer. The suffrage movement had a long-fought win when women gained the right to vote. Laborers took to the streets to protest working conditions; nationalistic fervor led to a communism scare; and temperance gained such traction that prohibition went into effect. Each of these movements reached a tipping point that year. Now, one hundred years later, these same social issues are more relevant than ever. Sandler traces the momentum and setbacks of these movements through this last century, showing that progress isn't always a straight line and offering a unique lens through which we can understand history and the change many still seek.
Book Synopsis The Foundation by : Frederick P. Keppel
Download or read book The Foundation written by Frederick P. Keppel and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As president of the Carnegie Corporation from 1922 to 1941, Frederick Keppel became a widely respected interpreter of philanthropic foundations. First published in 1930, The Foundation became one of his best-known works. As a brief, straightforward, and candid discussion of foundations and their activities, the volume was rightly praised. The book begins with a review of the history of foundations and then goes on to explain the then-current organization of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and a number of other trusts. It sets forth the purposes and procedures of different types of foundations â community foundations like the New York Community Trust as well as grantmaking foundations like the Commonwealth Fund. Comparing foundations to universities, the book argues that the most essential common purpose of the foundation is the furtherance of learning, culture, and research. It also calls on foundation executives to "practice... the art of being well-informed" and urges that informal advisory boards be relied on to provide specialized expertise. At the time Keppel became president of the Carnegie Corporation, the foundation was still a relatively new type of philanthropic organization. It is likely that Keppel had a significant impact on public attitudes toward these new kinds of organizations. His administrative style and his effort to find the money necessary to assist as many seekers as possible almost certainly helped remove the distance, mystery, and, in some quarters, the hostility that had surrounded foundations. He believed that foundations were accountable to the public, and he sought constructive criticism. Keppel's calls for openness and his service orientation undoubtedly helped define professional foundation practice. He understood what had to be accomplished if foundations were to gain an established place in American society and importantly contributed to the processes through which that was achieved. The Foundation helps us understand how and why he did what he did.
Download or read book Money to Burn written by Horace Coon and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1938, this is a classic muckraking account of the role of philanthropic foundations. Horace Coon's journalistic indictment of the state of philanthropy in the 1920s and 1930s emphasizes how great wealth perpetuates itself through the mechanism of the foundation. Coon looks at how foundations influence education and public thinking, the extent to which they support scientific, medical, and social science research, and their financial operations. But "Money to Burn "is more than an example of what we today would call investigative journalism. It is also one of the first serious efforts to describe the history of modern American philanthropy. Coon discusses the origins of philanthropic foundations in Western history and the establishment of the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, reviews the founders' motives, and launches a biting critique in the context of the economic disaster of the Great Depression. He grapples with the concept of the foundation as a "semi-public institution" that links political, economic, and public concerns, and he questions what degree of accountability to the public is appropriate. While Coon's interpretive criticism of the American philanthropic foundations reflects the political and economic concerns of the late 1930s, it stays honestly close to the facts. "Money ""to "Burn ""can be read profitably today as both a good general history of the emergence of modern American philanthropy and as an example of the public's concern with concentration of money and power at the end of the 1930s. Money to Burn, another volume in the Philanthropy in Society series, will be of interest to social scientists, philanthropists, public policy analysts, and decision makers interested in the role of the voluntary sector in American society.
Download or read book Foundation written by Peter Ackroyd and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in Peter Ackroyd's history of England series, which has since been followed up with two more installments, Tudors and Rebellion. In Foundation, the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death, in 1509, of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past--a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house--and describes in rich prose the successive waves of invaders who made England English, despite being themselves Roman, Viking, Saxon, or Norman French. With his extraordinary skill for evoking time and place and his acute eye for the telling detail, Ackroyd recounts the story of warring kings, of civil strife, and foreign wars. But he also gives us a vivid sense of how England's early people lived: the homes they built, the clothes the wore, the food they ate, even the jokes they told. All are brought vividly to life in this history of England through the narrative mastery of one of Britain's finest writers.
Book Synopsis Lincoln in American Memory by : Merrill D. Peterson
Download or read book Lincoln in American Memory written by Merrill D. Peterson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-06-01 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lincoln's death, like his life, was an event of epic proportions. When the president was struck down at his moment of triumph, writes Merrill Peterson, "sorrow--indescribable sorrow" swept the nation. After lying in state in Washington, Lincoln's body was carried by a special funeral train to Springfield, Illinois, stopping in major cities along the way; perhaps a million people viewed the remains as memorial orations rang out and the world chorused its sincere condolences. It was the apotheosis of the martyred President--the beginning of the transformation of a man into a mythic hero. In Lincoln in American Memory, historian Merrill Peterson provides a fascinating history of Lincoln's place in the American imagination from the hour of his death to the present. In tracing the changing image of Lincoln through time, this wide-ranging account offers insight into the evolution and struggles of American politics and society--and into the character of Lincoln himself. Westerners, Easterners, even Southerners were caught up in the idealization of the late President, reshaping his memory and laying claim to his mantle, as his widow, son, memorial builders, and memorabilia collectors fought over his visible legacy. Peterson also looks at the complex responses of blacks to the memory of Lincoln, as they moved from exultation at the end of slavery to the harsh reality of free life amid deep poverty and segregation; at more than one memorial event for the great emancipator, the author notes, blacks were excluded. He makes an engaging examination of the flood of reminiscences and biographies, from Lincoln's old law partner William H. Herndon to Carl Sandburg and beyond. Serious historians were late in coming to the topic; for decades the myth-makers sought to shape the image of the hero President to suit their own agendas. He was made a voice of prohibition, a saloon-keeper, an infidel, a devout Christian, the first Bull Moose Progressive, a military blunderer and (after the First World War) a military genius, a white supremacist (according to D.W. Griffith and other Southern admirers), and a touchstone for the civil rights movement. Through it all, Peterson traces five principal images of Lincoln: the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, man of the people, first American, and self-made man. In identifying these archetypes, he tells us much not only of Lincoln but of our own identity as a people.
