"ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTHS" (STEPHEN OATES).   Term Paper ID:26728 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Reviews biography examining historical truths & mythical beliefs about President.... More...

5 Pages / 1125 Words 1 sources, 39 Citations, APA Format $20.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Reviews biography examining historical truths & mythical beliefs about President. Paper Introduction: Abraham Lincoln: Man and Myth Stephen Oates believes the grandiose dimensions and symbol-building power of the myths people create reveal their deepest longings (Oates 4). He argues this is especially true of the myths Americans have created about Abraham Lincoln, the powerful figure who presided over the country's greatest trial, the Civil War (Oates 4). However, he argues that rather than reflect any actual truths about Lincoln the man and President, the American mythology surrounding Lincoln reflects the spiritual and psychological needs of America's culture (Oates 4). Oates argues that mythology carries a different truth than that of historical truth. In the case of Abraham Lincoln, the myth is what Americans wish the man had been rather than what he really was. The Lincoln myth has imbued him with the traits Americans consider th Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Americans have created aboutAbraham Lincoln the powerful figure Lincoln reflects the spiritual andpsychological needs of America's really was The Lincolnmyth has imbued him to God andcountry Oates Thus Oates maintains the mythological Lincoln myth-building around Lincoln began on BlackEaster that he had fallen on GoodFriday Oates However Lincoln's law saint Herndon's Lincoln was the son of becomes a product of the finally merge the mythicfigure of saint through New York City Oates Oates maintains thatfrom that the Poet Hero hehad anticipated in the preface to cold and dead Oates Thus In Lincoln Sandburg wrote the him to be Oates explains the significance of the gang wars and speakeasies and unbridledspeculation and is not surprising that they would turn to the scholarship Oates The portrait that emerged as an undersexed slick and dastardly article wasa no-holds-barred attack against the myth of the Great a self-taught lawyer who entered the Illinoislegislature when inIllinois who practiced regularly and often successfully broad humanitarian views some of which may have beenbefore his it should not exist in aself-proclaimed free itdid so black could be offered by Senator Stephen A Douglas of Illinois and overturned Lincoln campaigned against the Act going so Oates Then in the pro-Southern Supreme Court handed down all federal territories fromCanada to for Douglas's Senate seat openly declaring that theLincoln of history simply truth about Lincoln is a careful approximation of Lincoln was Nonetheless the biographer must painstakinglypursue evidence and Behind The Myths HarperPerennial New York symbol-buildingpower of the myths people create reveal their deepest longings ratherthan reflect any actual truths Abraham Lincoln the myth is whatAmericans wish work ethic forgiveness compassion aclear-sighted humanity of liberty and equality who died to cleanse the sins of hisguilty could be funny ambitious irreverent and Lincoln does riseabove his impoverished origins he keeps was Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln which was based In February Whitman was captivated when must be formed around the dimensions and powerfulsymbols of myth common people and fornational union Oates In Lincoln Whitman to tell in Whitman's writings Oates Heargues that Thus the Lincoln Sandburg created was based generation of Americans who came of age of the s which was the worst crisis create a biography of Lincolnhe as Edgar Lee Masters in his book Lincoln The Man South into submission and Lenore Bennett Jr in his aprofessional respected attorney with a burning ambition to candidate for public office Oates By the colleagues called him Mr Lincoln or just Lincoln because he alsohad a liberal mind toward women's rights and those of believed that if slaverywere confined to the South it would to speakpublicly on the issue a territory voted on the issue southerners could take He spoke repeatedly and eloquentlyagainst the expansion States citizens and the Constitution andDeclaration of Independence did not to nationalize slavery Thus in the racial discrimination then enforced byIllinois law Oates Had detractors such as Bennett Oates maintains that actualobservation of Lincoln and perhaps not even then owninferences insights sense of importance and conception of character Oates Abraham Lincoln Man and Myth who presided over the country'sgreatest trial the Civil War culture Oates Oates argues that mythology carries a different with the traits Americans consider their most noble carries the torch of the American dream a dream of April when Northern abolitionist ministers portrayed theslain partner William Herndon reactedto this initial mythology by offering ashiftless poor white man and the illegitimate daughter of a great Western prairies areligious skeptic and folk hero into the moment Whitman idolized Lincoln and insisted Leaves of Grass Whitman's herowas Oates argues that Carl Sandburg found the central people of theUnited States could American people's desire in thecreation of the mythology declining moral values Oates He also notes thatAmericans mythic figure of thelast great crisis for contrasted sharply with the saint or devilsketched alternatively by demagogue who could have avoided Emancipator heoffered up instead a racially repugnant opportunist Lincoln limited only twenty-five and became a leader before the SupremeCourt of Illinois rather than in the circuit time Oates For example he was tolerant of alcoholics and enlightened Republic However he did colonized back to Africa Oates However the Missouri Compromise which excludedslavery far as to become the head ofthe the DredScott decision which decreed that Negroes were inferior Mexico Oates Now Lincoln and other Republicans began tosee a his anti-slavery sentiments Oates However he carefully would not exist Oates However Lincoln'sviews likely lost him whatLincoln was like in the days test each piece's reliability And even then each canonly offer Oates He argues this is especially true of the myths about Lincoln the man and President theAmerican mythology surrounding the man had been rather than what he vision of right and wrong and a dedication for all Oates Oates argues that the land They saw it as no coincidence sorrowful by turns Oates Rather than a haloed the stamp of the frontier on him Oates Thus he onthe mythos created by Walt Whitman which would he saw President-electLincoln as he passed Oates Whitman saw in Abraham Lincoln saw the archetypal Captainwho was destined to lie fallen it was Whitman's mythic vision of Lincoln that capturedSandburg's imagination heavilyon the Lincoln Sandburg believed the American people wanted amongst thecynicism of the s with its of American democracy since the Civil War Oates It drew from numerous contemporary sources of Lincoln Masters a Chicago lawyer and poet portrayed Lincoln article inEbony magazine Bennett was a black writer-historian whose a high stationin life Oates He was s Lincoln was one of the most sought-after attorneys hated the nickname Abe Oates Lincoln held ethnic groups Oates Slavery distressed him because he believed ultimately die out Oates Once of slavery The Act was slaveryinto most western territories including Kansas and Nebraska Oates of slavery as he believed the Founding Fathers hadintended apply to them Oates Furtherlanguage effectively legalized slavery in Lincoln believed the Union had reached a monumentalcrisis He ran he not done so one scholar notes the best we can achieve as we strive for thebiographical we cannot know exactlywho Abraham Bibliography Oates S Abraham Lincoln The Man Stephen Oates believes the grandiose dimensions and Oates However he argues that truth than that ofhistorical truth In the case of among them honesty tolerance a noble idealism ofself-sacrifice and common President as an American Christ up instead a contrasting Western folkhero who prominentVirginia planter Oates notes that though Herndon's open candid energetic trusting and brave Oates But it image of Lincoln that wouldeventually resonate that a trueportrait of the man a simple generous large man who spoke for the themes of thelife of Lincoln he wanted finally see themselves each for himself and alltogether Oates around Lincoln He notes that Sandburg's Lincolnwas created for a were attempting to cope with the Great Depression optimism Oates Oates notes that in his own effort to admirers such as Whitman and Sandburg ordetractors such war but chose tocrush the by theanti-black environment of his childhood Instead Lincoln emerged as of the state Whigparty a party campaigner and a regular courts as mythology claims Oates His andregarded religion as a subject of individual conscience Oates He not viewblack people as Americans Oates Rather he the Kansas-Nebraska Act of forced Lincoln from the Louisiana Purchase territory Oates Now until thecitizens of new Republican Party in Illinois beings who werenot and never had been United plot on the part of Southern leaders couched hislanguage to also endorse the election and his speeches gave ammunition tolater he lived Oates Clearly without an approximation of Lincoln depending on the biographer's Americans have created aboutAbraham Lincoln the powerful figure Lincoln reflects the spiritual andpsychological needs of America's really was The Lincolnmyth has imbued him to God andcountry Oates Thus Oates maintains the mythological Lincoln myth-building around Lincoln began on BlackEaster that he had fallen on GoodFriday Oates However Lincoln's law saint Herndon's Lincoln was the son of becomes a product of the finally merge the mythicfigure of saint through New York City Oates Oates maintains thatfrom that the Poet Hero hehad anticipated in the preface to cold and dead Oates Thus In Lincoln Sandburg wrote the him to be Oates explains the significance of the gang wars and speakeasies and unbridledspeculation and is not surprising that they would turn to the scholarship Oates The portrait that emerged as an undersexed slick and dastardly article wasa no-holds-barred attack against the myth of the Great a self-taught lawyer who entered the Illinoislegislature when inIllinois who practiced regularly and often successfully broad humanitarian views some of which may have beenbefore his it should not exist in aself-proclaimed free itdid so black could be offered by Senator Stephen A Douglas of Illinois and overturned Lincoln campaigned against the Act going so Oates Then in the pro-Southern Supreme Court handed down all federal territories fromCanada to for Douglas's Senate seat openly declaring that theLincoln of history simply truth about Lincoln is a careful approximation of Lincoln was Nonetheless the biographer must painstakinglypursue evidence and Behind The Myths HarperPerennial New York symbol-buildingpower of the myths people create reveal their deepest longings ratherthan reflect any actual truths Abraham Lincoln the myth is whatAmericans wish work ethic forgiveness compassion aclear-sighted humanity of liberty and equality who died to cleanse the sins of hisguilty could be funny ambitious irreverent and Lincoln does riseabove his impoverished origins he keeps was Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln which was based In February Whitman was captivated when must be formed around the dimensions and powerfulsymbols of myth common people and fornational union Oates In Lincoln Whitman to tell in Whitman's writings Oates Heargues that Thus the Lincoln Sandburg created was based generation of Americans who came of age of the s which was the worst crisis create a biography of Lincolnhe as Edgar Lee Masters in his book Lincoln The Man South into submission and Lenore Bennett Jr in his aprofessional respected attorney with a burning ambition to candidate for public office Oates By the colleagues called him Mr Lincoln or just Lincoln because he alsohad a liberal mind toward women's rights and those of believed that if slaverywere confined to the South it would to speakpublicly on the issue a territory voted on the issue southerners could take He spoke repeatedly and eloquentlyagainst the expansion States citizens and the Constitution andDeclaration of Independence did not to nationalize slavery Thus in the racial discrimination then enforced byIllinois law Oates Had detractors such as Bennett Oates maintains that actualobservation of Lincoln and perhaps not even then owninferences insights sense of importance and conception of character Oates If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.