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America's Original Sin
White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination
On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. Twelve days later, Booth himself was fatally shot by a Union soldier after an extensive manhunt. The basic outline of this story is well known even to schoolchildren; what has been obscured is Booth's motivation for the act, which remains widely misunderstood nearly 160 years after the shot from his pocket pistol echoed through the crowded theater.
In this riveting new book, John Rhodehamel argues that Booth's primary motivation for his heinous crime was a growing commitment to white supremacy. In alternating chapters, Original Sin shows how, as Lincoln's commitment to emancipation and racial equality grew, so too did Booth's rage and hatred for Lincoln, whom he referred to as "King Abraham Africanus the First." Examining Booth's early life in Maryland, Rhodehamel traces the evolution of his racial hatred from his youthful embrace of white supremacy through to his final act of murder. Along the way, he considers and discards other potential motivations for Booth's act, such as mental illness or persistent drunkenness, which are all, Rhodehamel writes, either insufficient to explain Booth's actions or were excuses made after the fact by those who sympathized with him.
Focusing on how white supremacy brought about the Civil War and, later, betrayed the conflict's emancipationist legacy, Rhodehamel's masterful narrative makes this old story seem new again. The first book to explicitly name white supremacy as the motivation for Lincoln's assassination, America's Original Sin is an important and eloquent look at one of the most notorious episodes in American history.
About the Author
John Rhodehamel (NEWPORT BEACH, CA) is the former archivist of George Washington's Mount Vernon and the former curator of American historical manuscripts at the Huntington Library. His most recent book, George Washington: The Wonder of the Age, was singled out as "the only Washington biography you need" by the Wall Street Journal.
Endorsements
"This unique book combines Rhodehamel's intriguing insights with the excellent characterizations and top-tier research that have always distinguished his work."
"By emphasizing John Wilkes Booth's devotion to white supremacy and the depth of his rage at Abraham Lincoln's public call for black voting rights, Rhodehamel shows why the sixteenth president should be regarded as a martyr to African American civil rights."
"America's Original Sin offers an engaging and (unfortunately) very timely review of the life of John Wilkes Booth and his assassination of Abraham Lincoln. By emphasizing Booth's racism and devotion to white supremacist politics as the keys to his murderous deed, the author challenges the widespread notion that Booth was either simply a madman or an overzealous Southern partisan. Presenting this argument in an engagingly well-written narrative history, Rhodehamel has done a great service by bringing this point to a wide audience. An important and powerful book."
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Hardback | |
September 7, 2021 | |
9781421441610 | |
English | |
480 | |
125989 | |
17 | |
20 | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.26 Inches (US) | |
$27.95 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Electronic book text | |
September 7, 2021 | |
9781421441627 | |
9781421441610 | |
English | |
480 | |
125989 | |
17 | |
20 | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
$27.95 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
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