Edmund Wilson analyzes Lincoln in the shadow of the Cold War

Wilson's Lincoln was antislavery, an aspiring Caesar, and the creator of his role in a sanguinary drama.

Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore; Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962

I’m going to read and review Edmund Wilson’s Patriotic Gore…wow, it comes in at just under 800 pages…OK, then, I have another idea, let me read and review the chapter on Abraham Lincoln. There’s about 29 other chapters, but I hope I’ll be able to ignore them. I’ll read the introduction, though, so I can comment somewhat on Wilson’s overall attitude.

Wilson was not only a famous literary figure, he was a vehement opponent of the Cold War. So much so that he refused to pay his income tax because so much of it went toward military preparation, nukes, and so on.

Nor did Wilson think the Cold War was a fluke in an otherwise-peaceful American history. He believed the United States, as well as other countries, acted collectively on the aggressive instincts which had evolved in human beings over the eons.