Sunday, December 20, 2015

The Wall Street Journal's top ten nonfiction books of 2015

One of the Wall Street Journal's top ten nonfiction books of the year:
Mourning Lincoln
by Martha Hodes

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 plunged the nation into grief. Mourning for the president became a surrogate for mourning each fallen Union soldier. Yet the deep reaction to his death included not just shock, sorrow and anguish but also glee from his detractors (particularly Northern conservatives and immigrants), who feared his commitment to giving freed slaves civil rights. Martha Hodes draws a direct line between Lincoln’s calls for black suffrage and his assassination, making him an American martyr. “Mourning Lincoln” is a stunning piece of research, based on an extraordinary range of materials often overlooked by traditional historians.
Learn about another book on the list.

Cover story: Mourning Lincoln.

The Page 99 Test: Mourning Lincoln.

--Marshal Zeringue