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This Guilty Land

Eric Foner London Review of Books
A leading historian of 19th century US history reviews two recent books on Lincoln and John Brown, charting the background to the Civil War and its lingering heritage today.

The ‘Blood Drawn by the Lash’ and the Crimes of This Guilty Land

Eric Foner The London Review of Books
President Abraham Lincoln, termed the “emancipator.” Today Abraham Lincoln is widely revered, while many Americans, including historians, consider the militant abolitionist John Brown mad. Yet, according to two authors of new books on Lincoln and Brown, their chosen paths eventually seemed to converge.

Illinois - Slave State

Tara McClellan McAndrew NPR-Illinois - Illinois Issues
There was slavery in Illinois for more than 100 years. Even after Illinois entered the Union, loopholes in its laws allowed the practice to continue, making the future Land of Lincoln a quasi-slave state. 

Today’s Eerie Echoes of the Civil War

Manisha Sinha New York Review of Books
How does our epoch of political polarization compare to the decade that was rent over the issue of slavery before the Civil War? Historical analogies can be misleading, but the controversies that bedeviled that age still haunt us. In certain ways, they foreshadow our own divided house.
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