Abraham Lincoln, Statesman Historian

This book argues that, in order to make better sense of Lincoln’s political career, a greater understanding of his thoughts on and his use of the past is necessary. In each of his major addresses, Lincoln taught lessons about history, believing it an essential source of wisdom to guide the present and shape the future. In fact, he argued that the past should be used “as philosophy to learn wisdom from” rather than as a way to look for “wrongs to be revenged.” While many historians note Lincoln’s use of collective memory in his speeches, what is little understood is how he used many of the tools of the historian to reach his own conclusions about the past. Lincoln believed that a correct understanding of the past was so valuable that he, through his own independent study, acquired and used the methods of the historian to uncover that understanding. Lincoln shows us how history can be both accurate and useful—that mixing history with politics does not necessitate willful distortions. Subsuming the accuracy of the former for the interests of the latter is not inevitable. In fact, in doing history, “right makes might,” as Lincoln put it. An accurate understanding of the past is an essential source of wisdom for the successful statesman.