LitArk » Books » Non-fiction

Herbert Mitgang - Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe

Here you can read online Herbert Mitgang - Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2015, publisher: Open Road Media, genre: Non-fiction. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Book:
Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe
Author:
Herbert Mitgang
Publisher:
Open Road Media
Genre:
Books / Non-fiction
Year:
2015
Rating:
3 / 5
Favourites:
Add to favourites
Your mark:
- 60
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

Description
Author's other books
Similar books

Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

Herbert Mitgang: author's other books

Who wrote Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

ABRAHAM
LINCOLN

A Press Portrait

His Life and Times
from the Original Newspaper Documents
of the Union, the Confederacy,
and Europe

Edited and narrated by

HERBERT MITGANG

ALSO BY H ERBERT M ITGANG

BIOGRAPHY

THE FIERY TRIAL: A LIFE OF LINCOLN

THE MAN WHO RODE THE TIGER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE SAMUEL SEABURY

REPORTAGE

FREEDOM TO SEE: TELEVISION AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

LITERATURE

WORKING FOR THE READER: A CHRONICLE OF CULTURE, LITERATURE , WAR AND POLITICS IN BOOKS

WORDS STILL COUNT WITH ME: A CHRONICLE OF LITERARY CONVERSATIONS

HISTORY

THE LETTERS OF CARL SANDBURG

AMERICA AT RANDOM: TOPICS OF THE TIMES

WASHINGTON, D.C. IN LINCOLNS TIME

SPECTATOR OF AMERICA

CIVILIANS UNDER ARMS: STARS & STRIPES, CIVIL WAR TO KOREA

ONCE UPON A TIME IN NEW YORK: JIMMY WALKER, FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, AND THE LAST GREAT BATTLE OF THE JAZZ AGE

NEWSMEN IN KHAKI: TALES OF A WORLD WAR II SOLDIER CORRESPONDENT

FICTION

THE RETURN

GET THESE MEN OUT OF THE HOT SUN

THE MONTAUK FAULT

KINGS IN THE COUNTING HOUSE

PLAYS

MISTER LINCOLN

ADLAI, ALONE

To Shirley Mitgang

Introduction to the 2000 Edition

Whenever Im in Springfield to visit Lincolns hometown and pursue the latest discoveries about his life, family, legal career, and presidency, I head for a newsstand and pick up a copy of the Sangamo Journal and the State Register. I like to see what both Simeon Franciss pro-Lincoln paper and what the pro-Douglas paperwhich Stephen Douglas himself establishedhave to say. It makes for a neat political balance. The Journal spoke for the Whigs and later the Republicans, the Register for the Democrats.

Then, once again, comes a shock: Im dreaming in the wrong century. The two independent newspapers no longer exist, except as one merged publication, the State-Journal Register, with an out-of-town ownership. Nothing unusual about that in the broad field of communications in the new century. The same can be said for other newspapersnot to mention the television networks and conglomerated book and magazine publishersall over the United States. In Lincolns time, for example, New York City had ten daily newspapers; today, it has only one broadsheet, The New York Times, and a couple of warring tabloids.

In a lecture delivered to his neighbors in Springfield long before he became known nationally, Lincoln said: At length printing came. It gave ten thousand copies of any written matter quite as cheaply as ten were given before; and consequently a thousand minds were brought into the field where was but one before. This was a great gainand history shows a great change corresponding to itin point of time. I will venture to consider it the true termination of that period called the dark ages.

In a talk delivered in Columbus a year before his nomination, Lincoln said: Public opinion in this country is everything. He realized that voters could be convinced at that time in only two waysby voice (as in the Lincoln-Douglas debates) and by the press. The unamplified voice and the newspapers had at least one virtue: you could not punch up the worldwide web on a computer and get a busy signal.

Before pollsters, exit polls, ghostwriters, and spinmeisters, Lincoln recognized that the free press could lead to an educated public. With some noble exceptions, news is more partisan and limited these days but without being as independent. Like McDonalds hamburgers, some cynical journalists call the bland reports McNews. Or, if really boring, McSnooze.

Nobody could be bored reading the old Register and Journal. Early in Lincolns career, the Register reprimanded him for his humor, calling it assumed clownishness. In the mid-twentieth century, similar criticism was leveled against Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois when he ran for president in 1952 and 1956 and was branded an egghead who talked over the heads of the peoplea falsehood that insulted the intelligence of many American voters.

The Register called Lincoln the ineffable despot, who, by some inscrutable dispensation of providence, presides over the destinies of this vast republic. When Lincoln ran for a second term, the Register said, The doom of Lincoln and Black Republicanism is sealed. Corruption and the bayonet are incompetent to save them. The Journal responded by calling Charles Lanphier, the Registers editor, the agent of Jeff Davis who presides over the Copperhead sheet in this city.

It was raw stuff but enlightening and, in retrospect, fun to read.

By a little stretch of the imagination, its possible to say that Lincoln was once a newspaper publisher himself. He actually owned his own newspaper brieflya little-known chapter in his career, and one that he deliberately concealed from the public. It was the German-language Illinois Staats-Anzeiger. Under a secret contract drawn by Lincoln himself in 1859while he was busy lining up support for the Republican nomination for presidentany time that Theodore Canisius, the owner of the paper, failed to espouse the Republican line, Lincoln could reclaim its type and press. (The document of ownership gave the price as $400.) The paper, of course, was designed to convince German voters to toe the party line. Both parties to the deal held up their ends of the bargain. Before his inauguration, Lincoln sold back the paper to Canisius. Once in office, Lincoln paid off the support by naming Canisius the American consul in Vienna.

Its interesting to note thata century before A. J. Liebling, the New Yorker press critic, said it cynicallyLincoln was aware that freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

So it went from city to city with the outspoken party press. The Chicago Tribune was for Lincoln; the Chicago Times against; the Cincinnati Daily Commercial was for; the Cincinnati Enquirer against. The Louisville Journal had been one of Lincolns favorite newspapersHe studied and paid for it when he had not money enough to dress decently, said James Quay Howard, who interviewed many of Lincolns old friends. The Louisville paper played it down the middle for a Kentucky boy, saying, We do not concur with him in some of his views, but there is much good in Abrahams bosom.

Most of the secessionist papers were vitriolic about the Black Republican in the White House. But the Upper South had a newspaper in Knoxville with a memorable logotype: Brownlows Whig and Rebel Ventilator. It was edited by Parson Brownlow, who was a great supporter of President Lincoln and his wartime aims.

Lincoln was devoted to newspapers. With no harm done to the newsprint, he read the big city papers from all over the country before delivering them when he was the New Salem postmaster. Moreover, he served as a newspaper agent, collecting money from subscribers, a little-known fact that can be found in the Sangamo Journal of October 31, 1835. On page 1 theres a notice from Simeon Francis dunning his subscribers. In the statewide list appears the name A. Lincoln, Esq., as the agent for New Salem. Then as now, the practice of double-dipping by an officeholder was not unheard-of.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe»

Look at similar books to Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

David Herbert Donald

We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends

Abraham Lincoln

Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Abraham

Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler

Lincoln Abraham

Abraham Lincoln: with malice toward none

Lincoln Abraham

Lincoln: how Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in America: a companion book for young readers to the Steven Spielberg film

Lincoln Abraham

Meet Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Abraham

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

The Portable Abraham Lincoln

David Herbert Donald

Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Speech And Other Papers

Herman Belz

Abraham Lincoln, constitutionalism, and equal rights in the Civil War era

Herbert Mitgang

The Man Who Rode the Tiger: The Life and Times of Judge Samuel Seabury

Reviews about «Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe»

Discussion, reviews of the book Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait: His Life and Times From the Original Newspaper Documents of the Union, the Confederacy, and Europe and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.