Lincoln

So, you know those people who whisper during movies? I went with my husband to see “Lincoln” after Thanksgiving. I confess that I was whispering details and facts to my husband throughout the movie and was overheard by the woman in front of me. When the movie ended, she turned around to ask me if I was a historian or a teacher, and seemed baffled that I was neither. She wanted to why I had so many facts stored in my head. She didn’t seem irritated, just impressed. I explained that I had done a lot of research for a novel and was disappointed when I had to confess that I was not a full-time writer. Maybe one day.

Here’s your homework. Before my novel is available for the general public, you have time to go see the movie. Although my novel is set in the West, during the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War, it’s important to understand the back-story.

As you watch the movie, here are some things to think about:

• Was Lincoln a Saint, a Tyrant, or just another Politician?

• What could he have done differently to deal with the rebellion of the Confederate states that would not have cost the lives of so many men?

• Was he wise in postponing the peace talks in order to push the Thirteenth Amendment through?

• And do you think that he, and many of the others who promoted freedom for the slaves, actually believed in the equality of the African race?

• How easy do you think it was for the nation to recover from such a severe and divisive trauma?

Until I did the research for this novel, I didn’t understand what an essential role this time in history played in the development of our national identity. Just as important as the War itself was the Reconstruction Period that followed. A nation divided by anger and bitterness was expected to just shake hands and blend back into a neatly cohesive Union.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I think you’ll enjoy it!

Just don’t disrupt the people in front of you, ok?