Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Finished (E-Reader) - "Killing Lincoln" - Bill O'Reilly

As with "Killing Kennedy", which I "read" as an audiobook, I was pleasantly surprised with O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln".

As a Fox News person, I fully expected to be immersed in conspiracy theories, and in poorly done, partisan research.

However, the book seems like a fairly comprehensive overview of the last few months of Lincoln's life.  I'm certainly not an expert on Lincoln or Kennedy's assassination, but can recognize sensationalist writing.  This book doesn't have any.  It is written in a very easy to digest style, basically a novelization of the historical record.  It does a good job of presenting the main characters as people, with positive and negative aspects (e.g. Mary Todd Lincoln had some stability issues, attributable to the early death of her children, and of course, the assassination of her husband; General Grant was seen as dishevelled...).

I ran the book off in a few reading sessions, and felt the time worthwhile.  Timing of the book is great, as the major movie on Lincoln's life is out at the same time.


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