The Real Lincoln By Thomas Delorenzo Summary

Thomas J. DiLorenzo is the author of the book, The Real Lincoln. A great book in my opinion. DiLorenzo wrote this book to tell about Lincoln’s experience and what he did while he was the sixteenth president of the United States of America. The reason that makes me believe why DiLorenzo wrote this book is that it says in the first paragraph of the introduction, “According to one source, more than 16,000 books have been written on virtually every aspect of Lincoln’s private life and public life. But much of what has been written about Lincoln is myth “(1). That would be good reason to me to write a biography about Lincoln that was not a myth. On the back cover of this book it gives a little background information on DiLorenzo, it says that “DiLorenzo …show more content…
Lincoln was opposed to racial equality. He said a strong response in the fifth paragraph to Senator Stephen Douglas, Lincoln stated “I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgement, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality” (11). This statement really gives you an idea on what Lincoln thinks about the issue, racial equality. Lincoln strongly defended slaveowners, and their right to own their property. Lincoln actually had a role model and he was a Kentucky slaveowner, Henry Clay. Lincoln described him as “my beau ideal of a stateman, the man for whom I fought all my humble life” (14). This is some great proof that shows Lincoln’s view on racial equality. Chapter three is about Lincoln’s view on emancipation. Lincoln learned about Fremont’s proclamation, Lincoln told Fremont to change it so that none of the Federal troops could shoot civilians unless Lincoln gave them permission. In the first paragraph it is stated that, “He not only nullified the emancipation part of the proclamation but also stripped Fremont of his command on November 2, 1861, despite a personal plea by Fremont’s wife” (34). This is a great example of some of Lincoln’s emancipation acts he did. Lincoln was not scared to lay the law to politicians under …show more content…
Each Chapter was about some kind of argument. The book does not contain any kind of footnotes. There are some mini main points throughout the chapters. DiLorenzo used the majority of secondary sources throughout the book. The only charts in the book are on pages 107 through 109. They list different newspapers and then show one editorial statement from the newspaper. In the article “The Unreal Lincoln” Ken Masugi expresses his opinion about the book by saying “To get an idea of how truly awful this book is, consider that its author sneers at what he calls some "pledge of allegiance to the central government” (1). Masugi Thought the book was awful, in my opinion DiLorenzo portrayed Lincoln as a criminal sometimes. Masugi says that DiLorenzo portrays Lincoln as a war criminal, a racist, and a decisive centralizer of the constitution and a destroyer of American liberties (Masugi 2002, 1). The strengths of the book were that DiLorenzo was not scared to reveal the truth about Lincoln. In the article “The Real Lincoln” Richard Gamble explained that “In ten concise chapters, DiLorenzo attempts to demythologize Lincoln's reputation “This is good because somebody has to tell the truth about Lincoln. In my opinion Abraham Lincoln was a all around good president. He might have done some stuff that was not right. But he also did a lot of good things for America. Many people probably think the complete