In a New York Times review, renowned Lincoln historian James McPherson noted Forced into Glory's tendency to distort sources or misleadingly omit essential parts of them.
Other top Lincoln historians have warned about similar problems. Eric Foner called the book a "one-dimensional" portrayal. Allen Guelzo called it an "infamous screed." George Fredrickson said the book was extreme and driven by ideology.
I had to write a critique of Bennett's book as a key part of a master's thesis. I spent a good deal of time going back to the sources Bennett cites and reading those sources in the originals, and I found that McPherson, if anything, understated the case about Bennett's misrepresentation of sources. I could cite many examples of such distortions. Here is one:
Bennett makes it appear that at one point Lincoln supported forcible deportation of the African American population to Texas. Bennett tells his readers that according to L.E. Chittenden, who was Register of the Treasury during the Lincoln administration, the president came to Chittenden’s office and asked if Chittenden knew anyone with the competence to move the whole black population of the slave States into Texas. (Forced into Glory, pp. 512-513) What Bennett does NOT mention to his readers is that Chittenden’s own account states
1) that the Texas plan was not Lincoln’s, but Senator Pomeroy’s;
2) that the contractor who discussed it with Lincoln, though afterwards hopeful the president might take it up, believed it doubtful the president approved of the plan;
3) that Chittenden himself said the plan was soon abandoned; and
4) that Chittenden expressed doubt Lincoln was ever seriously interested in it!
(for the above four points in Chittenden's book, Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1891), see pp. 338–340.
Another example of a grotesque distortion by Bennett: He repeatedly gives his readers the impression that Lincoln was planning the forced deportation of blacks out of the U.S. What Bennett does not tell his readers is
1) every plan and piece of legislation Lincoln supported made very clear that any colonization of blacks had to be VOLUNTARY;
2) this was verified not only by the clear language of all relevant legislation, but also, for example, by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles’ diary entry for September 26, 1862. That entry notes that Attorney General Edward Bates at a cabinet meeting (which took place a day after the issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation) supported compulsory deportation of blacks, but “the President," Welles wrote, "objected unequivocally to compulsion. Their emigration must be voluntary and without expense to themselves”;
3) Bennett quotes Lincoln's rare use of the word "deportation" a great deal, but Bennett never informs his readers that in the few cases where Lincoln used the word, the immediate context of the use made it clear that only VOLUNTARY colonization was intended; and
4) A look at dictionaries from 1850, 1860, and 1870, shows that "deportation" in those decades had not yet developed the exclusively involuntary and compulsory associations it came to have in the twentieth century after two horrific and barbaric world wars. In the middle of the 1800s, "deportation" could refer to a voluntary departure. Bennett does not tell his readers that, and probably did not know it himself. In this context, one should also note something about Welles' reference to Lincoln's rejection of "compulsory deportation." If "deportation" at that time always meant something compulsory, then Welles' expression "compulsory deportation" would have been redundant. But Welles' expression was not redundant, because at that time "deportation" was not necessarily compulsory.
My point in noting the above examples of Bennett's grotesquely misleading distortions of the record -- and the book is really full of them -- is not to say that Lincoln was perfect or that Bennett's attacks on Lincoln have absolutely NO merit. That's why I gave this book three stars instead of one. Three stars is really too generous. In any case, while top historians have criticized Bennett's work as misleading, unbalanced, etc., they have also credited it with forcing historians to pay more attention to questions about Lincoln and race. That said, it remains the case that most of the claims in Bennett's book are disinformation dependent on quotations out of context and sometimes quotations altered from the originals. Even his strongest claims are, say, 10% correct and 90% exaggeration and propaganda, not history.
If you want a broad range of honest perspectives on Lincoln, I suggest the following three brilliant books by top-ranked, scholarly historians, though there are many other excellent books that could be suggested:
1) George Fredrickson: Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race (Of the three books, this one puts Lincoln's views and actions on race and emancipation in the least complimentary light.)
2) Eric Foner: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (This one might be considered a "centrist" scholarly perspective: Lincoln is seen as having been to some partial degree a racist to begin with but as having grown out of it to become a genuinely great emancipator.)
3) Richard Striner: Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery (Compared to the two books just named, this one puts Lincoln in a more unequivocally positive light and is not without brilliance in analyzing the apparently racist or supremacist statements of Lincoln as spoken not because he was racist but for admirable strategic political reasons. Specifically, Striner argues that Lincoln sometimes spoke in a way that could be interpreted as racist but that Lincoln did so only because he needed the support of racist whites if he was to have any chance of destroying slavery.)
As someone who has looked very closely at Bennett's frequent misrepresentation of his sources, I advise against taking Forced into Glory except with a grain, no, an ocean's worth of salt.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
New releases
Explore popular titles in every genre and find something you love. See more
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Thomas J. DilorenzoPaperback$15.00FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Thursday, Sep 16
Deals related to this item
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
smokingbrush
Essential addition to the Lincoln canon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2015Verified Purchase
Ms Jacqueline
A book well worth having
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2016Verified Purchase
