Faculty Archive

On the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, a new book by Reynolds Professor Paul Escott offers some provocative arguments that challenge what we thought we knew about the 16th president. In “'What Shall We Do with the Negro?': Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America” (University of Virginia Press), Escott argues that Lincoln was a complex politician of his time, with often conflicting attitudes and policies toward black Americans, rather than the enlightened Great Emancipator.