Killing lincoln

In the last few months by some strange coincidence I had been reading books which has association to death. The names include death by meeting, Steve Job's biography, Tuesdays with Morrie, who will cry when you die and the add to that illustrious list now I have, Killing Lincoln.

I just saw that it was a book on history but appears on the ny times list of best for 2012. Although its on American civil war and one which happened long time back I couldn't stop drawing parallel to our recent history. The resemblance were striking, similarities of the cases were not something I couldn't ignore and at the same time I couldn't ignore the difference in the way similar cases were handled. The divide there was between North and South. Both forces went through reversed fortunes and one eventually won.

Lincoln the shrewd strategist, partially for economic reasons and partially in the best interest of the country avoided his usual war time rhetoric and struck a code of reconciliation as soon as the war ended which was a strategic decisions which changed the course of American history forever.

The passage from the book which continues to echo in my mind for days is the following phrase,

"Lincoln hopes for a certain pragmatic leniency toward the southern states, rather than draconian punishment. " Seriously that thinking itself shows how he was destined for greatness, though he would fall a victim to a assassins bullet a few days after the win.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone