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allthebookblognamesaretaken 's review for:
Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History
by Richard Wightman Fox
Though this book states from the title it is a cultural history of Lincoln's body, it is so much more, following the national obsession as it ebbed and flowed from the time Lincoln was assassinated right up to the here and now.
Firstly, I find it so utterly strange how people in Lincoln's time were so obsessed with his physicality - and took any opportunity they had to point out he was not particularly attractive. I guess I've never noticed this before, I've never found him hideous or grotesque. To me he looks like a normal man, ages by the stress of leading a nation being torn apart at the seams.
I found that how the book was divided to be interesting. Fox references Lincoln's body in three different categories: first there is his physical body, the living, breathing Lincoln. Then in the aftermath of his assassination come the monuments and shrines. Finally, there is the metaphorical body that belongs to the nation as a whole, and exudes what Lincoln stood for - and how he is interpreted now, 150 years after his murder.
I've had a kind of fascination with Lincoln since 8th grade, on our class trip to Washington, D.C. I remember standing there at the monument, marveling at how huge it was, and I wish I had taken more time to ponder, taken more photos to remember it, and really understood at the time what he meant to the nation and what he continues to mean as a symbol of hope.
Firstly, I find it so utterly strange how people in Lincoln's time were so obsessed with his physicality - and took any opportunity they had to point out he was not particularly attractive. I guess I've never noticed this before, I've never found him hideous or grotesque. To me he looks like a normal man, ages by the stress of leading a nation being torn apart at the seams.
I found that how the book was divided to be interesting. Fox references Lincoln's body in three different categories: first there is his physical body, the living, breathing Lincoln. Then in the aftermath of his assassination come the monuments and shrines. Finally, there is the metaphorical body that belongs to the nation as a whole, and exudes what Lincoln stood for - and how he is interpreted now, 150 years after his murder.
I've had a kind of fascination with Lincoln since 8th grade, on our class trip to Washington, D.C. I remember standing there at the monument, marveling at how huge it was, and I wish I had taken more time to ponder, taken more photos to remember it, and really understood at the time what he meant to the nation and what he continues to mean as a symbol of hope.