Lincoln's Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency

by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein

Overview

The Lincolns spent the summer of 1862 north of the White House at the Soldiers’ Home. The lush, cool hill overlooking the squalid capital promised the Lincolns an escape from the "city of stink." Despite fears about Lincoln’s vulnerability in the secluded place, Lincoln spent a quarter of his presidency at the Soldiers’ Home. But until the National Trust for Historic Preservation began restoring the cottage, little had been done to explore this missing link in Lincoln’s life. Elizabeth Smith Brownstein fills in a critical gap. Using diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts, she provides unusual perspectives on Lincoln’s relationships, traces the evolution of Lincoln’s image, examines the Lincoln marriage, and more. Lincoln’s Other White House is a vivid evocation of a turbulent era, and an intimate portrait of the still elusive president.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681620008
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Born, raised, and educated Taunton, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Smith Brownstein found a love of history very early in life. She furthered her intense interest in American history at Wellesley College and The London School of Economics and Political Science. Her career, spent largely in the production of public affairs programs and cultural documentaries for both public and commercial television, began at CBS headquarters in New York City, where for four years I served as chief television researcher. Elizabeth has worked as writer, researcher, and producer for some of the distinguished, intellectually demanding figures in television: Lawrence Spivak, Eric Sevareid, Martin Agronsky, Adrian Malone, and Martin Carr.

Since the age of 18, Elizabeth has traveled widely in the United States, Europe, and Africa. She traveled across America, visiting over 125 potential sites in 20 states doing research for her first book, If This House Could Talk…Historic Homes, Extraordinary Americans (Simon & Schuster 1999). Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield, Illinois house, the only home he ever owned, was included in the book.  Intensive research on that site, together with childhood intrigue for her father’s small Lincolniana collection, furnished the base from which she began working on Lincoln’s Other White House.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Prologue	1
Part 1	Lincoln's Long Journey to the Soldiers' Home
1	Beginnings	7
2	The Riggs Villa	13
3	Washington and the White House	19
Part 2	Lincoln at the Soldiers' Home
4	Embattled Retreat	53
5	The Lincoln Marriage	81
6	Lincoln's Achilles' Heel	93
7	Lincoln's Favorite Storytellers	103
8	Lincoln and Freedom	113
9	Poems on Slavery	135
10	Lincoln's Secretary of War	141
11	Lincoln and the Tools of War	150
12	Lincoln's Quartermaster General	158
13	Lincoln as Commander in Chief: The Soldiers	164
14	The Generals	182
15	The Political General: Daniel Sickles	185
16	The Professional General: Joseph Hooker	191
17	The Political General: Benjamin Butler	199
18	Lincoln and His Cabinet	209
	Epilogue	223
	Acknowledgments	229
	Notes	233
	Additional Sources	251
	Index	253

Editorial Reviews

Brownstein (If This House Could Talk) compiles a detailed portrait of Lincoln's sojourns to the Soldiers' Home, a country residence on the grounds of a veterans' asylum three miles north of the White House, where he and his family spent several months a year from 1862 to 1864. This 160-year-old villa, declared a national monument in 2000, served as the Lincolns' refuge from Washington's oppressive summers, if not from a steady stream of visitors, the threat of Confederate kidnapping plots and the proximity of the Civil War battlefront. (They were "in hearing of cannonshot," Lincoln wrote.) Brownstein addresses familiar themes of the Lincoln presidency, including the solidity of his union with Mary Todd Lincoln. She also cites evidence for the site as the location of the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation and chronicles both Lincoln's interactions with the free black household staff and escaped slaves housed in nearby camps. This laudatory account, commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help rescue the Lincoln Cottage from obscurity, is dense with excerpts from primary source material, if not with new ideas and analysis. Agent, Paul Mahon. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly