The Heads of State This week in The New York Times Book Review, Steven B. Smith reviews “Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism†by John Burt. In many ways, Mr. Burt’s book is a response to another classic account of the debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, Harry V. Jaffa’s “Crisis of the House Divided,†published in 1959. Mr. Smith writes:
For the first time in over halfa century, Jaffa’s book has a serious rival. John Burt, a professor of English at Brandeis University, has written a work that every serious student of Lincoln will have to read, although its sheer bulk alone â€" more than 800 pages â€" as well as the density of its prose may deter all but the most intrepid Lincolnophiles. It is a work of history presented as an argument about moral conflict, and a work of philosophy presented as a rhetorical analysis of Lincoln’s most famous speeches. Unlike Jaffa, who projected Lincoln through the long history of natural law from Plato and Cicero through Aquinas, Locke and the American framers, Burt refracts Lincoln through the philosophy of Kant, Rawls and contemporary liberal political theory. His is very much a Lincoln for our time.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Burt discusses “Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatismâ€; Leslie Kaufman has notes from the field; Jeffrey Frank talks about Richard Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower; and Gregory Cowles ha! s best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
