Folks in a hurry can order the book at half price as a pdf download.
Cheers,
Richard F.
DECLARATION FOUNDATION'S "EDUCATION PAPERS" cont... by Dr. Richard Ferrier, President
At the Declaration Foundation, we have devoted a substantial portion of our civics textbook to an examination of Abraham Lincoln as a model "Declarationist Statesman."
That is to be expected. Use of The Lincoln as a national civic model is a central tenet of the Claremonster agenda and of those who follow it.
We have also exposed the many errors, big and little, that fill a dreadful new book, inappropriately titled "The Real Lincoln," by Professor Thomas DiLorenzo.
A while back I composed a list of the declaration/claremont grievances with DiLorenzo's book, each alleged in dozens of articles they have posted attacking it. The sum of those volumous rants ammounts to virtually nothing more than about 5 or 6 oft repeated complaints. None significantly changes, alters, or refutes any of the major arguments put forth in DiLorenzo's book. Out of those complaints, several are nothing more than hyperanalyzed typos of negligable significance or disputed interpretations of a text misrepresented as errors. The one factual error they did find out of the 200 page book was a contextual problem with a single Lincoln quote that has since been corrected for by the author.
Today, doing a google search for reputable reviews that have supplemented our own work at DF , I came across a new site that offers "The Real Lincoln Workbooks and Videos," as well as DiLorenzo's book, to the homeschool market. Most homeschool mothers are not scholars.
A good many homeschool mothers have greater teaching credentials than the majority of what exists in our public highschools today. While they may not all be college professors, it is condescending and presumptuous to declare that they lack scholarly ability.
Few will have the resources to discover the real character of this malicious and incompetent book.
The continued arrogance of Ferrier's statement aside, there is nothing preventing any homeschool mother from obtaining information on DiLorenzo's book, be it positive or negative, that any one of us could find. It stands to reason that a competant homeschooler could make an educated judgment about the book without biased parenting from the Declaration foundation.
Consequently, a number of good, innocent families will ingest intellectual and civic poison from this source.
Notice the assumptions of this statement. In one stroke Ferrier concludes against "ingesting" what he calls "civic poison" in DiLorenzo's book, yet never once does he bother to establish the attribute he assigns to it. In addition, the sum of his previous attempts to establish that attribute has proven woefully inadequite.
We at DF will do our best to issue a "product warning." We ask you to do the same. And, by all means, look over the links that reveal just how false and ugly a portrait of the Great Emancipator is painted in Dr. DiLorenzo's book.
In other words, read the declaration foundation and claremont websites. Notice that no suggestion is ever made to examine the other side of the issue, namely sites that praise DiLorenzo's book, and reach an educated conclusion from the sum of them.
One of the worst things that can happen to the homeschooling movement is for it to attract the scorn of our fellow citizens because it appears to teach "tin foil hat" nonsense.
This statement ammounts to nothing more than a fallacious appeal to image and misstated popularity combined with marginalization for the purpose of dismissal. By declaring DiLorenzo's book, which challenges the popular perception of The Lincoln, as an unpopular view and by further characterizing that view with the name "tin foil hat," Ferrier completely avoids having to intrinsically consider DiLorenzo's argument and its validity. This sets him up for an appeal to image among the homeschoolers. His message on this one is simple: "Take my word for it - if you read this book it will make your movement look bad." Sorry Richard, but your argumentation is extremely sloppy for a person of your credentials.
It's worse if the materials are un-American, as well.
His next appeal is to emotion. It is essentially, "don't read this book because it is un-American." This tactic permits Ferrier to fallaciously dismiss DiLorenzo's book while avoiding its content entirely.
Please join us in saving parents from teaching their children falsehoods, and spare the homeschool movement from suffering unnecessary contempt from Americans.
Again Ferrier is repeating the fallacious image appeal. Very sloppy indeed.