Review of "Lincoln: The Untold Stories," DVD version

 Review of

Lincoln: The Untold Stories, DVD version

Five out of five stars

Distilled from massive accumulation of memories

 It is not widely known that there is a massive amount of data about the life of Abraham Lincoln. After he was assassinated, William Herndon spent over 30 years interviewing over 250 of the people that knew the most about Lincoln. The interviewees range from his closest family members to neighbors to people that interacted with him professionally.

 This video is a distillation of that massive compilation, and what emerges is the story of a man that had to overcome great odds. His father considered him to be little more than labor for their farm and they were always only a short step above poverty. His emotionally distant father would rent Abraham to labor for neighbors, and he was forced to turn all earnings over to his father. It is stated that this was the germ of his opposition to slavery, where people worked hard and received nothing. His mother died when he was 9, leaving his 11-year-old sister Sarah as the female head of the family.

 There are some racy anecdotes in the rendition. It is not well known that Abraham Lincoln and his greatest political rival Stephen Douglas both courted Mary Todd. It is well known that Mary Todd was very ambitious and looked to marry the man that she thought would rise the highest in society. The best anecdote that unfortunately cannot be proven is that Mary Todd seduced Lincoln and then told him that she likely would get pregnant. While not verified, this is consistent with the suddenness of the wedding between Lincoln and Todd and the fact that their first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born nine months later almost to the day after the wedding. Lincoln was not enthusiastic about getting married. When he was asked where he was going, he said, “To hell I suppose.”

 This video is an excellent rendition of Abraham Lincoln the man, politician, father and somewhat reluctant husband. He often had to act to repair the damage that Mary Todd did in her relations with others. One of the most significant consequences of this is that U. S. Grant and his wife were not in the president’s box of Ford’s Theater the fateful night of the assassination. For if Grant had been there, there would have been military guards and Booth could not have gotten near Lincoln. Grant’s wife refused to go after being humiliated by Mary Todd. Pointing out that small things often have major consequences.

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