Fredrickson, George, M., Big Enough to Be Inconsistent, President and Fellows at Harvard College: United States, 2008

Book review by: Makala Portis

Many people have different opinions about Abraham Lincoln. In the case of the author George Fredrickson, he had written an article on Abraham Lincoln and after his writing many writers disagreed with what he had to say on the topic. Fredrickson wrote this book to broaden the topic on Lincoln's racial view on slavery, with the De Bois lectures, given at Harvard University. Fredrickson stated that the main point of the book was to find a "middle ground" on Lincoln's racial views for the people who viewed Lincoln as a racist and others who viewed him as a great man and someone who was against slavery.

Fredrickson organizes this book by first having a chapter called "Clash of Images". Many African-Americans in the early twentieth-century, viewed Lincoln as a " Great Emancipator" and had his picture hung up in their homes. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr., in his I have a dream (http://http//www.usconstitution.net/dream.html )speech, honored Abraham for his part in freeing the blacks from slavery.

In 1922 Du Bois was the first African American to question Abraham Lincoln. Different writers had different opinions, one being that Lincoln was a major supporter of slavery.

The second part of the book is called the "Illinois years" talking about Lincoln's years before his Presidency. Lincoln was born in Kentucky then moved to Indiana one reason for the restrictions that the slave owner farms had. Also Lincolns family church opposed slavery, as a personal sin. Lincoln believed that if God didn't want slavery in the world anymore that he would take care of it. When Lincoln was a child he was somewhat of a slave to his father because when he worked on others farms, he had to give all his earnings to his father.

The last part of the book, called "The War Years", explains Lincoln's progress towards the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wanted a slow progression toward freeing Black Americans, not a sudden one.

This is a great book to read, I learned a lot about Abraham Lincoln. In school my view of Abraham Lincoln was narrow. I saw Lincoln as a great man who had a major impact on society, especially on African American lives, but I never knew or was taught the two different sides of his racial views on African Americans. I definitely recommend this book, you might learn things you've never learned before.

The author did a really good job carrying out his main argument and putting everything out about Lincoln explaining both sides of the story and does not sugar coat anything. Fredrickson is a very entertaining writer and wrote this book very well.