A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War

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In Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s book, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His

Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, he attempts to change how people in today’s society view

Abraham Lincoln. Most people have the opinion that Abraham Lincoln was a great liberator, but in this book it seems like Lincoln was more of a great dictator. He supposedly did things for personal and government gain. In many ways the author’s main objective in the book is to destroy Lincoln’s reputation as the president who saved the Union at its time of need and fought to end slavery for equality for all Americans. In Dilorenzo’s book he explains Lincoln’s real views on race, his violation of the constitutional limits on presidency, his real economic agenda and how he started a war to achieve his goals.

The author of this book has a B.A.in economics from Westminster College in Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech. The author, Thomas James DiLorenzo, is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland Sellinger School of Business. He wrote The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War in 2002 and then wrote Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe in 2007. DiLorenzo views politics as “evil” and he holds Abraham Lincoln responsible for the expansion of government power.

Lincoln is known in history as a champion of equality which DiLorenzo believes to be false. Lincoln is often said to of used the phrase in the Declaration in Independence “all men are created equal”, however Lincoln stated over and over again that he was opposed to racial equality. In the book DiLorenzo quotes Ebony Magazine editor Lerone Bennett, Jr. with saying that “On at leas...

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...lusion, the book explains Abraham Lincoln’s economic legacy and the role it has played in shaping America even today. DiLorenzo wrote this book to discredited Lincoln’s good name. He wanted to show Lincoln as a racist politician who had a set agenda to have a centralized government that our founding fathers feared and did not want to happen. He portrays Lincoln has a president who abandoned the constitution and moral code and waged war on civilians. This book describes how Lincoln may have saved the Union, but in doing so he destroyed the idea of the Union and all it stood for.

Works Cited

Gamble, Richard M. “The Real Lincoln.” Indepent Review 7, no.4(Spring 2003):611. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (9382040)

Masugi, Ken. “The Unreal Lincoln.” National Review 54, no. 19(Oct. 14, 2002):61-63. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (7436815).

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