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Day Lincoln Was Shot
written by Jim Bishop
Studio : Gramercy
by Gramercy
Release Date : 1984-08-22
Publisher : Gramercy
Released : 1984-08-22
Availability : This Item is currently Not Available
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780517446492
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 26 reviews)
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Product Description |
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Gripping, minute-by-minute account of the day President Lincoln was struck down by an assassin's bullet in Ford's Theatre. Parallels of the activities of the President with those of his assassin in an unforgettable, suspense- filled chronicle. 320 pages. |
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Highly readable history |
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This is a very entertaining book. Bishop draws the reader into this familiar story from the start and holds our interest. It is by no means the definitive account of what happened (for example, there are those historians who believe Mrs. Surratt was quite aware and involved with the doings of her boarding house) but it's a good read and it brings an important chapter of American history to life. |
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Excellent Writer - Researcher |
Strange that this book is still in print while Bishop's other book about the murder of a President, "The Day Kennedy Was Shot," is out of print. That book similiarly examines the day Kennedy died as this one examines the day Lincoln died, and both are stellar examples of the researcher's craft and the storyteller's art. Oddly, another book which minutely examines the day of Kennedy's murder, William Manchester's "Death Of A President," is ALSO out of print. Conspiracy? At this point, who knows? Who even cares anymore?
JFK asked Bishop to write an article about him on the basis of having read this book about Lincoln; the original article was titled "A Day In The Life of a President." Kennedy suggested Bishop expand the article into a full book, which Bishop was in the process of doing when JFK was killed, and so the book turned into a sequel of sorts to this one about Lincoln that the murdered President loved. In the words of William Shatner, "Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes."
I have no idea why the Kennedy book is no longer in print. The Lincoln book is still out there, but "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" has apparently fallen out of favor. Strange.
So why a minute-by-minute examination of a single day, even a day as momentous as this one? That's not necessarily an easy question to answer; it is a kind of subset history genre, the close examination of Kennedy's death, or Lincoln's, or Christ's, or 9/11, or D-Day, or Hiroshima, etc. On first blush it might seem of value only to the researcher writing from a larger historical perspective, but in fact a work of history with this kind of focus can be far more interesting than any other approach to the subject. In the case of JFK, for instance, the incredible tension that builds naturally from a chronicle of the day he was killed makes for a more thrilling story than a novel on the same subject could ever hope to achieve.
The book follows not only Kennedy but all the players, Jackie, Oswald, his mother & his wife, LBJ, RFK, J.D. Tippett, and so on. At times these separate strands converge, but mostly they're followed separately and Bishop does a masterful job of keeping all the threads tight. It's hard to imagine the amount of research and organization that went into telling this story so cleanly, because it is certainly one of the most confusing, contradictory days in world history, but Bishop makes it look easy. He is a brilliant storyteller, and anyone will tell you that is what a great reporter has to be. It's not just the facts, ma'am, it's the narrative drive, and this one moves like a supercharged Hummer.
So why has it fallen out of print? And why has another book on the same topic, William Manchester's "Death of a President," also fallen out of print? I'm not much on conspiracy theories; there's nothing in either book that the "military-industrial complex" would find terribly distressing. Bishop does mention several eyewitnesses who saw or heard shots coming from the famous grassy knoll---as, incidentally, do the live news accounts of November 22---but by far most of the evidence Bishop (and Manchester) collects points squarely at Lee Harvey Oswald. I think this excellent book is out of print now because people just don't care who killed Kennedy anymore, and they certainly aren't interested in a blow-by-blow account of the assassination.
To say this is "too bad" would be an understatement of biblical proportions. Every day, every hour, we are losing our sense of wonder and curiosity about our world, and we are most particularly forgetting the lessons the Sixties taught us: don't trust the official story. They may be right (in this case, I think they actually are: I believe Oswald did act alone and the "coverup" all these years has been the CIA, FBI, Dallas police dept., etc. covering up how incompetent and ineffectual they were protecting Kennedy that day), but you should ALWAYS look into the story for yourself. Books like "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" (and Oliver Stone's masterwork film "JFK") help us do that, by marshalling all the available information into a powerful narrative thrust. If we forget, or more importantly if we simply cease to care, then the ones who want us to sleep our lives away have won before we're even out of the starting gate.
Read this book, not just because it is about one of the most important days in American history, and not just because it is a remarkably well-written thriller, but also because it is important, SO important, that we never forget this man and how he died and the lessons his death taught us. |
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Ok, so history CAN be entertaining |
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All history books should be written by Jim Bishop. He is able to bring the past to life with wonderful story telling that doesn't lose any details. This book taught me more about Lincoln than I have ever gotten out of classes and lessons. I had no clue that he disliked his wife and that John W Booth had failed so many times in his attempts. The deep research involved in such a writing must make it almost impossible to create history books in its image. Yet, we could do with less encyclopedia-like accounts of our past so that we keep our heritage instead of trying to wade through it. I will make sure to add Bishop's other masterpieces to my collection as soon as possible. |
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Yes, I know Lincoln got shot. |
The Day Lincoln Was Shot is, in fact, about the entire day of Lincoln's death. If you decide to pick up this book make sure you set aside a lot of time and anything else you could be doing. This book is a very detailed hour by hour account of the day Lincoln was murdered. I do give the author credit for being historically accurate. Although it was accurate, this book did not have the ability to capture and hold on to my attention. The plot was pretty straight forward and I felt as though i was reading something straight out of a history book plus what's inbetween the lines. Mr.Bishop did make a good effort and put alot of time into this book judging by how detailed it is. The level of detail however, was my biggest problem with this book. I understand that Lincoln got shot and it was tragic but I don't need to know his murderer's every action throughout the day to get to where he was when he shot Lincoln.
In conclusion, reading this book was comparable only to cruel and unusual punishment and I can only hope to never read anything this horrible ever again. |
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Minute To Minute History, At Its Finest! |
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"The Day Lincoln Was Shot" takes the reader through an minute by minute account of the events involving the principal characters involved in the Lincoln assassination. The story actually starts weeks before the assassination and traces the Booth conspiracy, first to kidnap, and then to murder Lincoln as well as Lincoln's activities amid the rumors of conspiracy and murder. The roles of others, prominently Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, are artfully woven into the book. Author Jim Bishop skillfully switches between Lincoln and the conspirators while relating the events. Although I have long studied Lincoln Lore, I learned new things about the tragedy, and was reminded of other things which I had known. Never did my attention drift from the story. This is first class, minute by minute history, at its finest. |
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