Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments [Hardcover]

James A. Percoco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0823228959 | ISBN-13: 978-0823228959 | Edition: 4

Across the country, in the middle of busy city squares and hidden on quiet streets, there are nearly 200 statues erected in memory of Abraham Lincoln. No other American has ever been so widely commemorated.A few years ago, anticipating the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 2009, Jim Percoco, a history teacher with a passion for both Lincoln and public sculpture, set off to see what he might learn about some of these monuments-what they meant when they were unveiled, and what they mean to us today. The result is this captivating book, a fascinating chronicle of four summers on the road looking for Lincoln stories in statues of marble and bronze. Of all the monuments, Percoco selects seven emblematic ones. He begins and ends the journey in Washington, starting with Thomas Ball's Emancipation Group, erected east of the Capitol in 1876 with private funds from African Americans, and dedicated by Frederick Douglass. Here, Percoco and his multi-ethnic band of teenage historians explore the impact of this Freedman's Monument showing Lincoln and a kneeling freed bondsperson. What does the statute say about race and freedom to today's Americans? What did Ball-and his sponsors-want it to say? From Augustus Saint-Gaudens's majestic Standing Lincoln of 1887 in Chicago, which helped move our image of Lincoln from great emancipator to that of statesman to Paul Manship's 1932 Lincoln the Hoosier Youth, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which glows with an art deco sleekness, Percoco mines a wealth of Lincoln legacies-and our reactions to them expressed across generations. Here are controversial gems like Barnard's 1917 tribute in Cincinnati and Borglum's Seated Lincoln, struggling with the pain of leadership, beckoning visitors to sit next to him on his metal bench in Newark, New Jersey. At each stop, Percoco chronicles the history of each monument, spotlighting its artistic, social, political, and cultural origins. His descriptions of works so often seen as clichs tease fresh meaning from mute stone and cold metal-raising provocative questions not just about who Lincoln might have been, but also about what we've wanted him to be in the monuments we've built.

Editorial Reviews

Review

. . . A captivating book that chronicles four summers on the road looking for Lincoln stories in statues of marble and bronze.

In Summers with Lincoln: The Man Behind the Monuments, James A. Percoco intrepidly explores the past to share the history of how seven of these monuments came to be, what they meant to their sculptors and the public at their unveilings and what they mean to us today.

Percoco, a Lincoln scholar who recently published his third book, Summers With Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments, doesn't run a typical history course. The seniors spend only part of the year in class. Many of their lessons come as they volunteer at or visit the area's historical sites. That's the applied part of the course.

About the Author

James A. Percoco is an award-winning history teacher at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia, and is History Educator-in-Residence at American University. He was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission's Advisory Board. Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the nation's leading authorities on Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He served as co-chairman of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and has written, co-written, or edited 35 books.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 4 edition (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823228959
• ISBN-13: 978-0823228959
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,849,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Lincoln Mania Explained March 1, 2008

By James M. Morris

Format:Hardcover

Everywhere you look in the United States there seems to be a statue of Lincoln. From Washington, DC, to Fort Wayne, IN, from Cincinnati, OH, to Newark, NJ, our nation's parks, squares, and town halls are dotted with sculptures of the sixteenth president. Over the course of four summers, teacher and author James Percoco traveled to learn first-hand about our nation's mania to put up stone and metal remembrances of Lincoln. He discovered a Lincoln who in death has come to embody each generation's idealistic hopes for a leader; a kind of stand-in for "the better angels of our nature," to quote Lincoln himself. In some ways it is not Lincoln, the president, war leader, or emancipator whom these sculptures commemorate but the Lincoln of our imaginations. A cross between "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon, and "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck, Percoco's "Summers with Lincoln" makes for thought-provoking reading about an important part of the American landscape.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly recommended contribution to American history and public library shelves January 13, 2011

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

Award-winning high school history teacher James A. Percoco presents Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments, a thoughtful chronicle of how seven sculpted monuments honoring President Lincoln came to be. Blending scholarship with masterful flair, Percoco smoothly weaves historical stories into his research; the result is a thoroughly accessible account sure to fascinate as well as enlighten readers of all backgrounds. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrates this highly recommended contribution to American history and public library shelves.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent volume July 15, 2010

By Joe

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Gives a fine look at the various icons that have been developed for the grestest American who ever lived. The text describes and 'illustrates' the memorials made on Lincoln and how they have impacted upon our general conscience. A real MUST for all Lincoln fans as well as those who overall enjoy learning about our nation and its historical connections via our common goals.