Lincolnian Totalitarians by Thomas J. DiLorenzoby Thomas J. DiLorenzo In his book Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the Civil War the literary critic Edmund Wilson explained the most important consequence of that war in a single profound paragraph: The impulse to unification was strong in the nineteenth century . . . and if we would grasp the significance of the Civil War in relation to the history of our time, we should consider Abraham Lincoln in connection with the other leaders who have engaged in similar tasks. The chief of these leaders have been Bismarck and Lenin....
