but not apparently when you're talking about books about abraham lincoln. and ethical american event, his 200th birthday, is being mocked by an inundation of new lincoln books, the likes of which, few of us have ever seen. between 1865 and 2009, well over 14,000 titles, and more than 2000 juvenile books on lincoln have been published. launching a new biography of lincoln in 1922, the former united states senator albert j. beverage denied that the last word on lincoln had already been written by arguing that the first word has not been pinned. today, the first words are still being written. lincoln books emerge with ever greater frequency. once a week, as every generation seeks to discover lincoln for himself. itself. in some ways the past two decades have been a golden age of lincoln scholarship. theodore roosevelt complained frequently that his times had denied him greatness because he could not preside during world war i. a man has to take advantage of his opportunities, he said, after leaving office here but the opportunities have to come. if lincoln had

i ran across something, abraham lincoln -- there was a very dr.use, and abraham lincoln would not eat his food because he is the same one that was supposed to have done the poisoning. is it true that abraham lincoln actually made an arrest warrant for the chief justice of the united states? guest: i do not think abraham lincoln ever tried to arrest the chief justice. although he was not wild about either one of them. it was his first term. he nominated his rival and cabinet. zachary taylor -- several years ago, more than that now, an academic in florida was writing a book which said that there was the poisoning. and descendants of taylor went along with exhuming our 12th president. once again, zachary was reintroduced to the american people. tests were conducted. they did not find arsenic. so the basic conspiracy theory. in some ways, almost 200 years old which i think as been effectively disproved. host: was talk about the story about the title behind the boat. guest: i used to tell brian that i wanted to call it "deadman talking, an underground

maybe no greater than abraham lincoln, but different than abraham lincoln. and i'm very, very happy to be introducing and moderating this conversation is such a story that we have here tonight. i'm going to introduce them for my far left, that's purely geographical. not politically. but in order of the presidents upon about to rather they have written. gary may is professor of history at the university of delaware. professor made specializes in diplomatic history since 1945. he is the author china scapegoat, the diplomatic ordeal of john carter vinson published in 1979, he was awarded the other networks. while researching his next work, titled un-american activities, the trials of william remington published in 1994, professor made successfully contested against ben rudolph giuliani for records thereby setting a precedent for the unveiling of records connected throughout his case and the rosenberg cases. he has made history as well as written about it here at in 2005, professor made published the informant, the fbi ku klux klan and the murder of viola minnes

and for nine years as president of the abraham lincoln association. udge williams is the author or editor of over 11 books on mr. lincoln, the latest of which is lincoln lesson, reflections on america's greatest leader. co-authored with william petersen and published by the southern illinois university press this year. judge williams is currently working on an annotated pickle out of the of all of the lincoln titles published since 1865. he should have that completed this weekend. [laughter] >> and at the same time, is writing a book

abraham lincoln's tomb was broken into on election night 1876. a group of counterfeiters hoping to spring their boss from jail. they were in full treated. they got into the tomb and opened it to, and then they were arrested. from the best of my knowledge, it is interested when use a desecration, it is interesting, both washington and abraham lincoln had their caskets opened years after the president's died. ostensibly by groups of people who wanted to make sure that that was who was in the casket. that might be a form of desecration. in 1901, the last time abraham lincoln was moved, there was a grave robbing an effort. abraham lincoln now lies under 10 feet of concrete and steel out there in springfield, illinois, but they cannot help themselves. there is this group there that opened the casket. one of the members said to get on your bike and come up here. when the boy grew up and died in 1961, a man had the distinction of being the last team in being to gaze at the face of abraham lincoln. host: richard norton smith, we have run out of time. the

. >> host: mitch e-mails, why haven't you written a book on abraham lincoln? do you think his is overrated as a president? >> guest: no. i think he is your greatest president. as for writing a life about him, that is precisely what i'm thinking about at the moment. i was asked to write a short life of winston churchill. i did that. that's already published. then the person said to me is there another very important person you could write a life about, short life about? and i said, yes, jesus christ. i have written that life, too, and that is going be to published this year. so now i'm looking for another subject, and one of the subjects i'm thinking about very seriously is writing a short life of abraham lincoln, because i believe he was your greatest president. i believe he was an absolutely fascinating man, and a very good and decent man, and a very funny man, like churchill. he had a very good sense of humor, and he made a lot of jokes. and so he is the ideal man to write a book about. now, whether one can write a successful short book about him, which puts

when abraham lincoln made his one catastrophic blunder, creating the agriculture department's, therefor every 227,000 farmers. today there is one for every 19 farms. the story is told that a department bureaucrat was seen leaving in the halls of the building on independence avenue. a fellow bureaucrats came up and said what is wrong? he said, my former died. -- my farmer died. we've seen more and more local undertakings becoming dependent on the federal government. conservative administrations are culpable in this. under the last republican president, we passed a bill that further intruded the government in to run our schools. oblivious of the fact that the american family is the smallest school. the american family is the primary transmitter of values, and schools serve families, not the other way around. [applause] the general problem is not what rahm emanuel said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. the real problem is what they think, a crisis is a lovely thing to create. the crisis being created before our eyes is the crisis of the exploding deficit, which they hope will put

cactuses and chopping them down and making hey, this is like abe ra a hamlin con' hamlin -- abraham lincoln's log cabin but it's out of cacti, right? >> we can't build a building or change things without permission of the state. i wouldn't anyway. people come to see the cactus, not a goofy tourist attraction. >> glenn: warren, thank you for your time and thank you for being on the show. i have to tell you, america. i was just at seaworld a couple of weeks ago when bill o'reilly and i went and did our tour. i went down there and took the kids to seaworld. never been there before. i have wanted to go when i was a kid but we couldn't afford it. took the kids down. when i was talking to people at seaworld, they talked about how many seals they save. they save 300 to 500 seals a year. they wash up on the beach or starving some place and they take them in and nurse them back to health and release them in the wild. now the state does that, too. state funds. your tax dollars in california. or you can have seaworld do it. and you get an amusement park out of it at the same time. it seems to me that ev

. >> host: mitch e-mails, why haven't you written a book on abraham lincoln? do you think his is overrated as a president? >> guest: no. i think he is your greatest president. as for writing a life about him, that is precisely what i'm thinking about at the moment. i was asked to write a short life of winston churchill. i did that. that's already published. then the person said to me is there another very important person you could write a life about, short life about? and i said, yes, jesus christ. i have written that life, too, and that is going be to published this year. so now i'm looking for another subject, and one of the subjects i'm thinking about very seriously is writing a short life of abraham lincoln, because i believe he was your greatest president. i believe he was an absolutely fascinating man, and a very good and decent man, and a very funny man,e@@ sure. and that's what i'm thinking about at the moment. because i'm seriously thinking that he is going to be my next subject. >> host: what was it like growing up catholic in england? >> guest: wel

i believe abraham lincoln once told us that. a house divided cannot stand.at was recently displayed in black and white in new york with the cycle political division between the republican and the conservative end. two of them became politically helpless. >> who are you talking about? i'm sorry -- >> the election in new york for the congress. >> are you talking about new york 2003? >> yes. >> at the end they became politically helpless and useless. within 24 hours you had the democratic winner playing an important role. so that's the question on the o-division. the last question to you, just monday, i believe, the prime minister of israel netanyahu made a bold statement that the u.n. made recent displeasure with his, you know, government. in terms of misuse of power. it was horrible. but he went on to tell us that obama almost became a nonfalse prophet. because obama fully supported israel which got to the recent decision by the uno and it was reacted flatly calling the uno misuse of power.owy so my question to you is, how do you explain those two psychologi

on the other side was the secretary of war, robert todd lincoln, son of abraham lincoln. so that you had son of lee and the son of lincoln agreeing on something. and i would say that was the beginning of the some hope that we could reunite north and south again. it took a while, but that was the beginning of the reunion. >> so we're going to walk back here to the first tomb of the unknown soldiers? >> yes. one of the great traditions at arlington is honoring the unknown soldiers. lost in war. the first instance of that came just after the civil war when quartermaster general montgomery mags sen

>> the famous image of abraham lincoln visiting the battle of the potomac, with corps commanders near the battlefield. on the right is lincoln or officers and he is facing general mccollum on the left. >> did you choose it? >> i chose it. i was in gettysburg awhile ago and this is the post card we picked up and it is a famous photograph of lincoln with cash and i picked up this photograph of lincoln's dog which i had never seen before. so these were pictures to put near the lincoln papers. this is one of my favorite pictures of lincoln. it is the only photograph of lincoln wearing reading glasses. >> you can view booktv programs online? go to booktv.org, type the name of the author or subject into the search area in the upper left-hand corner of the page. select the watch link. you can view the entire program. you can explore the recently on booktv box with a featured programs box to find and view recent featured programs. >> your 1-stop shop for everything c-span is at c-span.org/store. you will find documentaries on the capital, supreme court and the white house. our series on presi

abraham lincoln was the first president who understood the power of photography.ave to go quite a bit later run to find another person -- a bit later on to find another person who understood it. jfk knew that his family and image was a very attractive thing to photographers. he had a lot of outside photographers coming in. this was a campaign picture as the senator was widely published. you know the situation, but you probably have not seen this picture. i love the shot. you can see john kennedy jr.'s shoes. that is the picture you have all seen, a very famous picture. the kennedys had a remarkably good affinity with still photography, particularly. both the president and mrs. kennedy let these guys came in. the official duties of the white house photographer or for military people. this is lyndon johnson, kennedy, and some of you would know the other guy. i also showed a picture of marched off martha mitchell to a class to the other day and only three people knew who it was. [laughter] these are really beautiful photos. it is a very famous picture. this transitio

bush on the aircraft carrier abraham lincoln declaring mission accomplished. what i see in the commonality is that we all love this country, that we all want to make this a better world, that we all want our children to have more opportunity than we had and a better world. what -- and that is kind of the stepping off point for what the differences are between what i am doing and the fellow that you just described. you know he is working within the system and many people do and i applaud them, i am not constitutionally made for it. but being a politician, even a republican politician, i honor, that's a very tough job to do the people's work. and what i am doing is by and large trying to bring out the largest vision possible to give people an opportunity to hold a sense of the whole thing rather than the micro units for example, if i am talking about healthcare, i am ultimately always going to get back to is it a writer or a privilege. you know the kind of debates that the founders would be having, and in fact i would say that they had because during the george

abraham lincoln's idea put forward in the agony of this country at the time is that america is the lastion of the gentler form of american exceptional loss of. still, there are critics who make no distinction whatsoever between belligerence and other versions of american exceptions at right. but to do so and in a particularly noxious form of exceptional is some, with america as the exemplar of classism, imperialism, capitalism, globalism, you name it, if it is bad, america embodies it somehow. put forward as criticism, it is in fact a type of conspiracy theory. if anything bad is happening anywhere, america's hands are bound to be involved. we want to exonerate it we have a great deal of criticism, but it takes us nowhere. it is by now so much black grout splashing. it does not affect the ordinary citizen thinking about how we might love our country and criticizing it at the same time. but you can't win them all, as they say. so let me step back and think about a framework set forth many years ago now by h. richardçó neighbor, himself an extinguished theologan. an oldy but goody called

but yeah, abraham lincoln. i wish i would have gotten to talk to the man. host: thanks, mike.avorite president is obama, and of course, clinton, and i liked nixon and eisenhower. host: what did you like most about nixon, terry? caller: i just think he was a very smart man who got caught up in the same thing everyone else was doing at the time. i think he would have done very well for this country had not gotten caught up in that. host: i think you are also the first caller in this segment to mention ike. unless i missed something. tell me why you have a favorite spot for eisenhower. caller: i was named after him. i am a dwight. if you looked at him, he was a man that you could stand up with. he was a military -- as far as i'm concerned -- genius. host: thanks for your call this morning. the amateur historian, walter eckman, has written in the "philadelphia inquirer" this morning a tribute on eisenhower. he writes that eisenhower was famous for his fondness for jock -- for golf, but john f. kennedy was the best. chicago, good morning to john on the republican line. your favorit

we are running out of time did he referenced abraham lincoln. let me tie some threads together.rvative political action conference getting underway. 35 years in the making. a number of columnsç in the par today and the political significance. one of them is gail collins, "the new york times" columnist. her title -- time to party like it is 1854. greenville, north carolina, betti, republican line. caller: when the tea party for started -- i agree with the gentleman before us, we needed unity. when they first part about i was happy to see people finally standing up to be heard but most people involved in the tea party is our decent americans citizens. but now it is time to focus. what makes this country sound is the constitution based on gottlieb principles. the so-called church has become a doormat involved in petty matters behind brick and mortar. there is a time to stand up for principles. unless the tea party can get a central focus and we know what the focus is and where it is leading us, we need to be wary of where we are being led whether it is democrats or republicans or

on the other side with the secretary of war, robert todd lincoln, son of abraham lincoln, so that you had fun of lee and some of lincoln agreeing on something. and i would say that was the beginning of some hope that we could reunite north and south again. it took a wild but that was the beginning of the reunion we had >> so we're going to walk back here to the first term of

abraham lincoln said how he could argue for one in the morning and the opposite in the afnlt that's what lawyers do, just because they worked for gitmo or gitmo terrorists doesn't mean they're true believers. how do you respond to those who say this is a political stunt? >> i don't object to fact that they represented gitmo detainee, although you wonder why people decide to put their time in for certain causes. now that they're on the other side and we're talking about vital issues of life and death i think the american people are entitled to know who represented guantanamo detainees then and now, and to me, this removes any type of doubt and himself would let us decide whether or not this colors their opinion, whether or not they are so influenced by their representation of guantanamo detainees, certainly, for instance, if they're going after cia's interrogators and it turns out they also represented someone who is a guantanamo detainee, that would raise questions of judgment. i think the american people are entitled to make that decision. eric holder may decide the person is qualified,

remember abraham lincoln on the eve of the civil war, forces gathering with a nation divided half slaveand half free, he rose to deliver the first inaugural saying we are not enemies but friends. though passion it has strained it must not break our bonds of affection. even in the eyes of the conf confederate soldiers, he said he had seen the eyes of god. one called for lessening prejudices and consill yating goodwill. and there he made the way for progress in truth. for the eyes that sought to silence a nation's conscious, he saw the face of god. yes, there are crimes of conscious that call us to action. yes, there are causes that move our hearts and offenses that steer our souls, but progress does not come when we demonize opponents. progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common humanity. progress comes when we look into the eyes of another and see the face of god. that we might do so that we will do so all the time, not just some of the time, is my prayer for the nation and the world. thank you, and god bless you, and god bless the unit

. >> i call him secular and point out that there are a number of secular sermonizers, abraham lincoln very obviously, but what i mean by secular sermonizers is the use what i call the american scriptures to read the declaration of independence, the constitution in a way that is a christian pastor on sunday morning might use the bible. it is a very intelligent application of the best language that america has produced. and obama fits three comfortably in that tradition especially where african-americans are concerned, so what i do in the book as i look at frederick douglass's riss on we the people of that phrase, and barbara jordan's famous phrase of we the people and then connected to obama's we are the people. so there's this tradition week pick out the american scripture and make it work. >> i have to say as i was reading the book was so male heavy, male-heavy. but they mentioned [inaudible] -- barbara jordan, let's talk a bit about her because i think that she is kind of -- we don't hear as much about barbara jordan. >> it's very interesting how much courage and reputation has fade

certainly some in the mainstream tradition to abraham lincoln, very obviously. but what i mean by secular sermonized is the use what i call the american scripture. they used a declaration of the best and the constitution in the way that they pastor a christian pastor on sunday morning might use the vital. it is a very intelligent and location of the best line was that america has produced. and obama it's very tough to into that position, especially what african-americans are concerned. what i do in the book as i look at frederick douglass is ripped on we, the people, that phrase. and barbara jordan's famous red dawn we, the people and connected to obama's we, the people. so there is the tradition we pick pick out us certain aspects of this scripture and make it work. >> i have to say that as i was reading, it was so, the book with so many heavy, m. a. l. a., heavy. and i thought where are the women? then barbara jordan. they were mentioned and not in the same depth. and i just, but barbara jordan really, and i think let's talk a bit about her because i think she

and abraham lincoln's birthday on february 12th and you have a holiday, and they coined it them president's

remember abraham lincoln, on the eve of the civil war, with states seating and forces gathering and a nation divided, half slave and half free, he rose to deliver his first inaugural and said we are not enemies, but friends. passion may -- though occupation may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. even in the eyes of confederate soldiers, he saw the face of god. remember, william wilbur horris, he was vilified, derided, attacked, but he called for lessening prejudices and con sill ating good will and thereby making way for the less obstructed progress of truth in the eyes of those who sought to silence a nation's conscience, he saw the face of god. yet, there are crimes of conscience that call us to action, yet there are causes that move our hearts and offenses that steer our souls. but progress doesn't come when we demonize opponents, it's not borne in righteous spite, progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common humanity. progress comes when we look into the eyes of another and see the face of god. that we might do

abraham lincoln -- i wish i could have talked to the man. my favorite president is obama and of course clinton. i liked nixon and eisenhower host: what did you like most about nixon? caller: i think he was a real smart men who got caught up in the same thing ever what everybe was doing. he would have done good for this country if he had not got caught up in that. host: think you are also the first caller in this segment to mention ike. tell us about why you like eisenhower. caller: i am a polite. -- i amdwight. he was a man you could stand up with. he was a military genius. host: the amateur historian, historianeckman, wrote some trivia on dwight eisenhower he said he was famous for his fondness for gulf but john f. connelkennedy was the best on te links. chicago, good morning to john on our republican line, your favorite president? caller: washington and reagan. washington because he set the tone for what the presidency stood for and he stepped down instead of being a dictator. he was a real straight arrow through his whole life. he was a w

institutions in 1862 -- in the middle of that civil war was nonetheless passed by the administration of abraham lincoln. but it didn't really reach full throttle until after the second world war. and what makes them truly the best in the world is not at the end of the day the quality of the undergraduate education there. but the research discoveries, inventions, innovations, et cetera that have been coming out of these universities for some time. now, what's extraordinary to me is that this story has not really been told by the leaders of american higher learning over the years. and i consider it a personal failure until i wrote this book, of course, of not trying to communicate to the broader public. what it is about these universities that makes them in their entirety quite extraordinary. and i don't want to. i want to be very careful. i don't want to underestimate the importance of undergraduate education or the transmission of knowledge. but it is not that which differentiates us greatly from those types of education that we can find abroad or in the great liberal arts colleges perhaps in the unite

when abraham lincoln made his one catastrophic blunder, creating the agriculture department's, therewas one bureaucrat for every 227,000 farmers. today there is one for every 19 farms. the story is told that a department bureaucrat was seen leaving in the halls of the building on independence avenue. a fellow bureaucrats came up and said what is wrong? he said, my former died. -- my farmer died. we've seen more and more local undertakings becoming dependent on the federal government. conservative administrations are culpable in this. under the last republican president, we passed a bill that further intruded the government in to run our schools. oblivious of the fact that the american family is the smallest school. the american family is the primary transmitter of values, and schools serve families, not the other way around. [applause] the general problem is not what rahm emanuel said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. the real problem is what they think, a crisis is a lovely thing to create. the crisis being created before our eyes is the crisis of the exploding deficit, which

we need to revive this narrative of american freedom and democracy when abraham lincoln unforgetablyalled the last best hope of earth. we must tell better stories about america. no american president, of course, understood this concept better than ronald reagan. in reagan's farewell address to the nation january 11th, 1989, i'm sure many of you remember it. reagan reflected on the image of the united states that had guided him during his eight years in the oval office. think about this when you think about what image of america is guiding president obama and his inner circle. he tells the story of a sailor on the carrier midway, patrolling the south china sea during the 1980s. the sailor notices on the horizon a leaky little boat. crammed inside are refugees from indo-china, hoping to get to america. midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and to safety. as the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spotted the sailor on deck, stood up and called out to him. hello, american. hello, freedom man. if we stop believing in america as the best hope for human righ

abraham lincoln's idea put forward in the agony of this country at the time is that america is the lastm of american exceptional loss of. still, there are critics who make no distinction whatsoever between belligerence and other versions of american exceptions at right. but to do so and in a particularly noxious form of exceptional is some, with america as the exemplar of classism, imperialism, capitalism, globalism, you name it, if it is bad, america embodies it somehow. put forward as criticism, it is in fact a type of conspiracy theory. if anything bad is happening anywhere, america's hands are bound to be involved. we want to exonerate it we have a great deal of criticism, but it takes us nowhere. it is by now so much black grout splashing. it does not affect the ordinary citizen thinking about how we might love our country and criticizing it at the same time. we are entirely unmoved by what was set forth. in "price and culture," greenberg identified five different possible positions taken this starkly, and their relationship to the approach in which they find themselves. and these

remember abraham lincoln. on the eve of the civil war, with a state seceding and forces gathering with a nation divided, half slave and half free, he rose to deliver his first a nod to i said, we are not enemies, but friends. no passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. even in the eyes of confederate soldiers, he saw the faith of god. remember, whose christian faith led him to seek slavery abolition in britain. he was vilified to ride his attacks, but he called for lessening prejudices and conciliating goodwill. and thereby, making way for the less obstructed progress of truth. in the eyes of those who sought to silence and nations conscience, he saw the face of god. yes, there are crimes of conscious that call us to action. yes, there are causes that move our hearts and defenses best year our souls. the progress doesn't come when we demonize opponents. it's not born in righteous fight. progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common hu

the menu had been replaced by abraham lincoln, henry allen comes in and fixes things with corruptionms we see in afghanistan now, but we focus on other cases to show them this wasn't a unique problem in afghanistan and here are some ways that other countries have dealt with it again. you know, looking at the philippines is another great example where you have a very corrupt government. they were doing well against the insurgency you had president come in and did a purge of the leadership, guy would've officers who were doing their job and insisted that they respect the population. insisted that nepotism would don't longer be tolerated. and those stories really didn't seem to resonate with the afghans. >> host: you wrote this question "a question of command" and from what i understand, it's caused quite a stir in military and civilian leadership. were you surprised by that? >> guest: a little bit, yeah. you know, it depends to a much service to look at. i work with the marine corps. i said the er me a lot, too. but the marine corps has traditionally adhered to a position last based on

remember abraham lincoln on the eve of the civil war.eceding he roo say we're not enemies but friends. though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. even in the eyes of confederate soldiers he saw the face of god. remember, william who's faith led him to england. he called less prejudice and conciliating good will and there by making way for the less obstructed progress of truth. in the eyes of those that sought to silence a nation's conscious. he saw the face of god. yes, there are crimes of conscience that call us to action. yes, there are causes that move our hearts and offenses that steer our souls but progress doesn't come demonizing opponents and not born in righteous spite. it comes when we open our hearts and extend our hands and recognize our common humanity. progress comes when we look into the eyes of another and see the face of god. that we might do so, that we will do so all the time, not just some of the time. that's my fervent prayer for the nation and world. thank you. god bless you and god b

abraham lincoln, one of our nation's most admired and greatest presidents, once said, you cannot escapehe responsibility tomorrow by evading it today. yet that's what congress is poised to do if it fails to act. in closing, madam speaker, nearly four years ago, i visited the site of george washington's crossing the delaware river in anticipation of the battle of trenton. the iconic scene is depicted in a paint chg hangs in the west wing of the white house. washington had only 3,000 soldiers and he headed for defeat. yet with great courage and sacrifice washington and his forces were successful in changing the direction of the american revolution and therefore the course of history. their legacy is a rich one and it is ours. if we are mindful of this legacy and the sacrifices so many previous generations of americans, i believe we will take action. i believe we will rise in our midst profiles in courage. i believe we'll make the sacrifices necessary for the betterment of this country. i close with the words of washington himself, the cautionary words from his 1796 farewell address he sai

when abraham lincoln made his one catastrophic error, creating the agriculture department, there wasur cry for every 237 farms. -- agriculture bureaucrat for every 237 farms. we have seen more and more local undertakings becoming dependent on the federal government, and conservative administration is culpable in this. it was under the last republican president if we pass a bill that further led the government to lead our schools, regardless of the fact that the american family is the primary school and schools serve families -- not the other way around. . the general problem is not what rahm emanuel said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. the real problem is what they think, a crisis is a lovely thing to create. the crisis being created before our eyes is the crisis of the exploding deficit, which they hope will put us in a position to have to have a stampede toward an enlargement of the government's, perhaps justified by this or that commission. that is the object. çófinally, the greatest stampede of all they have in mind was the stampede that would be brought about by stimulat

surely, abraham lincoln's idea, put forward in the agony of his country at the time that america is the last best hope on earth is an expression of the gentler form of american exceptionalism. still, there are among us critics who make no distinction whatsoever between the belligerent and the more lincolnan versions, who can edemic it outright. but they do so in a manner that is a species of a noxious of american example, that is america as a leader of injustice, racism, imperialism, classism, run amuck capitalism, globalism, you name it, if it is bad, america somehow embodies it. now, put forward as criticism, it is in fact a type of conspiracy theory. if anything bad is happening anywhere, america's bloody hands are bound to be involved. now in response to this sort of virulent outburst, some defenders of america, we need to acknowledge this, go over board in another direction and exonerate us altogether. as historic sins and crimes and misdemeanors. they offer too rosy a view of us as a nation. thus, we found a great deal of become and forth labeled criticism, but it takes us nowhere