Mourning Lincoln

Public responses to Lincoln’s assassination have been well chronicled, but prize-winning historian Martha Hodes is the first to delve into personal and private responses–of African Americans and whites, Yankees and Confederates, men and women, soldiers and civilians, rich and poor–investigating the nation’s first presidential assassination on a human scale. Black freedom, the fate of former Confederates, and the future of the nation were at stake for everyone, whether they grieved or rejoiced when they heard the news. Drawing on a remarkable range of diaries, letters, and other contemporary documents, Mourning Lincoln reveals not a moment of unity and closure, but instead a deeply divided country on the eve of Reconstruction.

Winner of the 2016 Lincoln Prize
Winner of the 2016 Avery O. Craven Award, Organization of American Historians
National Book Award: longlist finalist for nonfiction (1 of 10)
Best Books of the Year, Wall Street Journal, nonfiction (1 of 10)
A “lyrical and important new study” –Jill Lepore, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, front page, and Editor’s Choice, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
An “intimate, bracing account” that “unearths a valuable story, one that shouldn’t be missed among the glut of Lincoln anniversary books”– WASHINGTON POST
A “stunning piece of research” –Michael Burlingame, WALL STREET JOURNAL
An “elegant and nuanced study” —CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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