TOW 23: Emancipating Lincoln

After finishing Emancipating Lincoln by Harold Holzer, author and Senior Vice President of External Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was able to examine the impact of Lincoln’s momentous announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation during the pivotal moment in the American Civil War. Using original, primary sources, Holzer analyzes Lincoln’s modern manipulation of the media—the various ways in which he withheld, leaked, and promoted the Proclamation—in order to make his society-altering announcement applicable to America. Holzer's main purpose was to shed light about not just the factual aspect of the Emancipation Proclamation, but also the story behind it. What the political and social climate was at that time; the various responses from the American people; Lincoln's true motives. And Holzer accomplishes all of this by citing credible, original sources that establish a sense of ethos.