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The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution by James Oakes
sammy080901's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
bit repetitive and a little too much author opinion, but very informative and educational
coffeebuff22's review against another edition
4.0
Slow start with LOTS of details. But picks up steam while explaining the intricacies if Lincolns' vision to end enslavement. Last third was a real page turner!
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
3.0
This is good overall, but it loses a star on Lincoln and colonization. With Oakes, it's more a throwaway than a full-throttled claim like that of David S. Reynolds in "Abe-Abraham Lincoln and His Times," but Oakes claims Lincoln stopped discussing abolition after 1862.
(Update: Book lost a star due to email exchange with Oakes:
You have to be obsessed with colonization to give a shit about this. I’m not and I don’t.
Here’s why:
Q. Of the four million slaves emancipated by the Civil War, how many did the federal government colonize outside the United States?
A. Zero
I’m interested in explaining what happened, not what didn’t happen.)
My response: I'm "obsessed" with historical accuracy. I guess you're admitting you're not.
PLUS, you knows it "goes to motive" on explaining persona of Lincoln.)
This is half-true by the letter, at best, and totally untrue in spirit, as he allowed the Emigration Bureau to discuss Belize colonization in 1863, asked AG Bates in 1864 if colonization was legally still on the table, and reportedly discussed the issue with Spoons Butler just before his assassination.
Given this, and that Oakes like Reynolds tries to "soften" old Lincoln statements from charges of racism, it's no wonder Reynolds blurbed it. Add to that the fact that they're peers at CUNY and even both went to Berkeley and there probably was some cross-pollinization.
As with Reynolds' book, were the five-star elements in it not fully five-star, the book would have gotten three stars because of this willful and egregious failure. (As with Reynolds, it is both; I know he knows the history I just cited.)
(Update: Book lost a star due to email exchange with Oakes:
You have to be obsessed with colonization to give a shit about this. I’m not and I don’t.
Here’s why:
Q. Of the four million slaves emancipated by the Civil War, how many did the federal government colonize outside the United States?
A. Zero
I’m interested in explaining what happened, not what didn’t happen.)
My response: I'm "obsessed" with historical accuracy. I guess you're admitting you're not.
PLUS, you knows it "goes to motive" on explaining persona of Lincoln.)
This is half-true by the letter, at best, and totally untrue in spirit, as he allowed the Emigration Bureau to discuss Belize colonization in 1863, asked AG Bates in 1864 if colonization was legally still on the table, and reportedly discussed the issue with Spoons Butler just before his assassination.
Given this, and that Oakes like Reynolds tries to "soften" old Lincoln statements from charges of racism, it's no wonder Reynolds blurbed it. Add to that the fact that they're peers at CUNY and even both went to Berkeley and there probably was some cross-pollinization.
As with Reynolds' book, were the five-star elements in it not fully five-star, the book would have gotten three stars because of this willful and egregious failure. (As with Reynolds, it is both; I know he knows the history I just cited.)
pacey1927's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of "The Crooked Path to Abolition" in exchange for an honest review. I am really interested in Abraham Lincoln and anything pertaining to his history. Therefore I jumped at the chance to read and review this new book. I will say that the book is well researched and informative. I will also say that I found the book to be extremely dry and dense. The first half of the book essentially made points about pro-slavery vs anti-slavery readings of the constitution and how different groups of people in America viewed the document that decides everything two very different ways. I kept reading and finished the book hoping against hope for any personal details but came away without that. I did appreciate a review of statements that seemed so out of character made by Lincoln regarding slaves and black Americans and why he likely made those statements to pacify certain people politically. However by analyzing those statements, it is made clear that he rarely, if ever, made those statements from a place of his personal views. I definitely found some new tidbits to think over with this book but I didn't come away with what I hoped for with this book.
quincywheeler's review against another edition
4.0
A good summary of the winding path Lincoln walked toward abolition and a belief in racial equality. Oakes does a good job looking at Lincoln's record with a fair mind, and illuminates the way that Lincoln utilized numerous, varying strategies to achieve abolition, which was always a goal for him.
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