10/13/2004

The ultimate anti-Lincoln site

Lew Rockwell, whom I briefly knew in an earlier life, has compiled the ultimate anti-Lincoln site. You may want to get the Digitalis ready before visiting the King Lincoln Archive.

Rockwell is a Libertarian Party man and these good people have the disadvantage of believing that a paradigmatic analysis is nothing less than philosophy. The result is an inflated polemic based on false certainty. Lincoln is not spared.

This list of Libertarian articles on Lincoln is one I have yet to fully plumb, but superficially, based on the few pieces I've read I want more

* Criticism of Lincoln as a Natural Rightist or as a Lockean, not as a statist;
* Analysis over rhetoric, especially in the management of evidence;
* Criticism that does not overwhelmingly rely on the Southern experience of war.

The biggest single need seems to be for an historic - not political - sensibility.

Some of the articles have been extensively criticized and/or deconstructed by scholars in other forums. Nevertheless, if you have good filters and enjoy a contentious counterview, you can get a lot of enjoyment out of the site.

(p.s. Tip of the hat to author Trask for his Hawthorne article. It's a nice thing that reminds me of Marion Montgomery's wonderful book.)