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anti-secessionist views align
well with the government’s policy
on Tibet. The steady stream of
Lincoln paraphernalia grows to
flood levels around the times of
anniversaries, such as the 150th
of the Gettysburg Address, which
falls next year. (Because, as Cornelius puts it, “everyone loves
round numbers.”)
This year, there is the added
momentum of Steven Spielberg’s
Lincoln, which, for its reach and
biographical faithfulness, could be
considered the president’s most
popular public appearance. As of
its November opening day, more
people watched the movie’s
London-born star, Daniel DayLewis, play Lincoln, than saw
or heard the real Lincoln in his
lifetime. This week, Disney announced a rush order of additional prints to meet what the Associated Press called “unexpected
demands” in Alaska.
History lessons taught in movie
theaters don’t usually impress academics, but Spielberg’s vision is
“all anybody in Lincoln scholarship
is talking about,” according to
Harold Holzer, a Lincoln expert
whom Tony Kushner consulted
with for the Lincoln script. Holzer
distills his colleagues’ reactions to
HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
CULTURE
LINCOLN
MOMENTS
Historian Richard Norton Smith names four “Lincolns”
that have occupied our cultural consciousness.
1984:
2000:
Since the Vietnam War,
libertarians have tarred
Lincoln as the first American
overreacher, but Gore Vidal
was the first to memorably
brand the president an
“absolute dictator,” in his
1984 historical novel Lincoln.
African-American historian and
longtime Ebony editor Lerone
Bennett, Jr. accused the Great
Emancipator of instead being
a white supremacist, in his
controversial book, Forced
Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s
White Dream.
1999:
2006:
At a conference in Wisconsin,
the Pulitzer Prize-nominated
playwright and gay rights
activist Larry Kramer made
headlines with the claim that
he could prove Lincoln was “a
totally gay man.”
Writer Joshua Wolf Shenk’s
splashy debut, Lincoln’s
Melancholy: How Depression
Challenged a President and
Fueled His Greatness, marks
the first, but not last, time
Lincoln’s moods have been
filtered through the paradigm
of modern depression.
DICTATOR LINCOLN
BROKEBACK LINCOLN
RACIST LINCOLN
PROZAC LINCOLN