[billbears]

Oh so we're translating are we? Illbayese, Mcpherson = 'the greatest historian since Josephus'. Josephus had Christ, and Mcpherson has lincoln. The fact is that McPherson takes his historical 'fact' from partial quotes of a consummate politician, lincoln. Ignore the statistics, the papers of the day, speeches from lincoln's detractors, statements from non-biased foreign papers and officials, anything that takes away from 'the lincoln'.

It's a treasure and a must-read for any serious student of U.S. history.

It's something alright I'll give you that. It's a fanciful revision to condone lincoln's actions. Heck, even McPherson himself calls lincoln a 'benevolent dictator'. Yeah, it's chockful of something

[4CJ]

Heck, even McPherson himself calls lincoln a 'benevolent dictator'

Is there some sort of scale involved here? Say for instance, only 500,000 Americans were killed - would Lincoln have made "Saint"? < /sarcasm >

[Illbay]

I never said anything about "Josephus." I simply stated that Battle Cry of Freedom is a very good, honest account of that period of our nation's history. There is nothing "hack" about any of it.

Lincoln had flaws like any other leader our nation's ever had. But he led us through the nation's darkest hour, a crisis that far exceeded the two World Wars we've fought in on FOREIGN SHORES. As the war ground on, very tough decisions had to be made. He made 'em, and he took the brunt of criticism for them.

History shows that he was the greatest President of the Nineteenth Century, hands down. Perhaps, like GWB, that was an accident of chance, but as I believe that God has had His Hand in the affairs of this country since it's beginning, I don't believe in chance--then or now.