American Brutus : John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies

Rating:
Summary: Compelling History, Well Told
Review: This history has three things going for it: first,Kauffman gives just enough detail---unlike some histories that overwhelm the reader with names and dates and mind numbing detail, Kauffman stays with the main characters(for the most part) and lets them emerge as distinct and full bodied people---Booth,vain but with an actor's gift of persuasion; Stanton,hard as nails but who loved(not too strong a word) Lincoln; the various members of the plot, all sinister but with different agendas. Second, he deftly talks about how Lincoln went from the most hated man in 1860 America to the most beloved. Finally(and here is where the book excels)he describes how Booth came to realize that his act made Lincoln a saint,and vivdly portrays Booth's death which was as painful and drawn out as the President's. For lovers of trivia the Coda lets you know what happened to all the main characters.

Rating:
Summary: Nice title, flawed book
Review: As someone who's long been fascinated by the Lincoln Assassination, who's got a plethora of books on the subject, and who has taken the Booth Escape Tour from Ford's Theater to the Garrett Farm (hosted by renowned Civil War Historian Ed Bearss), I picked up this book to add to my collection. It is an easy read. However, I find the author seems to mention details that could only be known by being there (he mentions that conspirators Herald and Atzerodt found flatulence funny and would giggle for some time after such an episode- now how does he know that? I'm sure that wasn't written down anywhere, and it's not referenced). His most grievous flaw is in his trying to make a case for Dr. Mudd being an innocent person drawn in to the plot. He even makes excuses for Mudd not recognizing Booth when he stopped at his house to have his leg fixed (come on, he'd met Booth on previous occasions. And I doubt that Booth 'looking haggard' would fool a doctor). As is pointed out in "Blood on the Moon" by Steers, Booth went past several other doctors to get to Mudd's house. But all of this is omitted to make his argument that Mudd was just a dupe.

Not a bad book, but if you're unfamiliar with the Lincoln Assassination and are looking for just one book to read on the topic, get Steers' "Blood on the Moon".

Rating:
Summary: Possible Pulitzer prizewinner
Review: Bravo! This book will surely be a worthy contender for a Pulitzer prize. It eclipses all previous studies of the Lincoln assassination, not only in the scope of its research but for the ease with which the author has assimilated his material for a compelling narrative. On and off for the past five years I have been researching and writing a book on the assassination and its immediate aftermath. My previous books were selections of the History and Military Book Clubs and I quickly realized that many unpublished sources on the assassination were crying out to be located and exposed. Kauffman is a prodigious digger. He even has more than 800 reviews of Booth's theatrical performances. It is one thing to assemble such a mass of material and another to synthesize it into a readable story. He has done a superlative job. The complex portrait of Booth is the highlight. There is also an excellent presentation of murky incidents during the escape south. Much weaker, though, is his account of the trial and executions, written with such loss of momentum that it seems as if the publisher ordered text trimmed. Inexplicably, the author all but ignored torture during the solitary confinement of the four conspirators who were hanged. Surprisingly, Kauffman has time and again missed opportunities to include choice quotes from new material that I have also tracked down. A handful of conspicuous errors are inevitable in such a monumental work. Sadly, Kauffman continues the unpleasant tradition of many of his predecessors in taking pot-shots at authors who came to different conclusions. He makes bold assumptions but in each case offers weighty supportive evidence. A great read from an author who deserves acclaim for decades of exertion.

Rating:
Summary: Booth's folly
Review: I am normally loathe to encourage the memories of presidential assassins. If I had my way, their names and biographies would be lost to oblivion. What a perverse way to ensure one's name in history books: the cowardly (and often easy) murder of an inspiring leader.

That said, "American Brutus" is an invaluable volume that sheds light on the enigmatic figure at the center of one of America's darkest hours -- the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Historian Michael Kauffman paints John Wilkes Booth as what the evidence says he was: a brilliant actor with an erratic personality, dizzy with the need for fame; a man obsessed with making a name for himself by striking a blow for the Confederate cause when it was all but lost; a man at the periphery of great events (and great wealth) who lied compulsively to be seen as more important than he was; a man who used blackmail and false promises of great fortune to bind to himself a small group that would help carry out his murderous plots.

"American Brutus" makes real the alien and fascinating world of the April 1865. It was a day of gaslights and horse travel; a world where a personal introduction meant far more than a mere exchange of names; where soldiers protected the White House property, but left its occupant unshieded in public. It's hard to imagine now (in this day of ubiquitous forensics TV shows) how the Ford's Theater crime scene was stripped of artifacts soon after the assassination. Booth's derringer and even Lincoln's clothing were taken as souvenirs by casual visitors to the presidential box. The political atmosphere was equally bizarre. The degree of hatred for Lincoln by Democrats -- who saw him as a tyrant in the mold of Napoleon and George III -- was shocking, especially in wartime. Maryland, Booth's home state, where Lincoln's harshest and most restrictive measures were laid on the restive populace, was crisscrossed by smugglers and spies and rebel sympathizers. The state of medicine was primitive. A roomful of doctors could do nothing for the wounded president but to monitor and record his pulse rate and respiration, occassionally poking around in the wound while waiting for the inevitable end.

Kauffman provides these and many more details as he describes Booth's central role in shaping the conspiracies to capture or assassinate Lincoln. He tells of Booth's measures to entangle others in his scheme, and the way he silenced them with threats of exposure. Kauffman also describes Booth's complex motives for killing the president. Imbued with equal parts Confederate leaning, personal grandiosity, and perhaps a touch of the family madness, Booth believed he would be hailed as a modern day Brutus, striking down a tyrant. There's real pathos when Kauffman describes Booth reading news accounts of the crime that paint him as a base coward.

Kaufmann details the 10-day manhunt for the killer, Booth's death at the Garrett Farm and the subsequent trial of the other conspirators. Kauffman is at his most persuasive when he details the flimsy case against the conspirators and the appalling state of the law in 1865. The defendants were treated like animals, had two days to prepare a defense, and were denied protections that are considered standard today. The procecution could and did hide evidence that might have save one or more of the defendants. Kaufmann's narration raises serious questions about the involvement of Dr. Mudd and Mrs. Surratt in Booth's schemes.

"American Brutus" is a master work of history narrative that makes for compelling reading. Kauffman has used his historian's instincts to mold a narrative that discerns the probable truth behind conflicting and confused evidence. His Booth is a man driven by high principles and inner demons, who planned and committed one of history's most heinous acts. The book's title stands both for Booth's personal identification with tyrant killers of the glorious past, and with the bitter irony of history's less exalted verdict of his deed.


Rating:
Summary: I agree
Review: I can only echo the other reviews in that this is careful, meticulous history going back to first principles and overlooked sources and not just another layer added to the existing layer cake. This is a book that is not obsessed with methodolgy or mystery but examines the character at the heart of the event. Kauffman's Booth is a more human, more interesting, and more nefarious character than suggested by his usual reduction to 'deranged actor' or 'unbalanced actor.' Kauffman's analysis of the conspiracy trial is more balanced and interesting than the contemporary assumption that it was entirely a railroad job by the government.

Rating:
Summary: "Et tu, John Wilkes?"
Review: Michael Kauffman sets the tone for his excellent book in its introduction. He politely cites academic historians for having repeated one another's errors...in the Lincoln assassination field, this is an especially common phenomenon. Kauffman also avoids the error of viewing long-ago events through present-day prisms. He relies on contemporaneous sources throughout.

He doesn't quite demystify John Wilkes Booth (the extent of his involvement with Confederate leaders no doubt will always remain unclear) but he gives readers as accurate a picture of Lincoln's assassin as has been seen to date, consistent with known facts. His book is filled with new insights, including the likelihood that Booth broke his leg not when he leaped to the stage at Ford's Theater, but when his horse fell during his escape. The book is non-fiction, of course, but it reads like a taut novel.

That isn't to say Kauffman's conclusions are beyond cavil. In particular his contention that John F. Parker, long presumed to have been Lincoln's neglectful bodyguard on April 14, 1865, was in fact only an Executive Mansion functionary, flies in the face of other known history---including Mary Lincoln's accusations against Parker, the trial at which Parker was cleared (why would it have been held at all if he hadn't been a real bodyguard?), Parker's 1890 obituary that identifies him as Lincoln's guard, the 1905 memoirs of William Crook, who served five presidents, that accuses Parker of neglect, and with a logical assumption that Lincoln's life was more in need of protection than was the house he lived in, especially given the many threats against it.

Historical questions aside, the book rates five stars on merit. It is the most thorough, objective, unbiased account of the assassination to come along in quite a while.





Rating:
Summary: Another Assassination book - Yes and it is good
Review: Ok, I have close to 100 books on or about Lincoln, and about twenty of these books only deal with his assassination. After reading Blood On The Moon, I thought this long overdue book will put the assassination at rest. However, this book puts a brand new spin on the "mind of, and actions of" Booth. I'm not sure if I agree with the writer's conclusions, but the book is well written and entertaining, and for those of us who thought we knew everything about the Lincoln assassination, you will come across things never mentioned in other books. Did you know that Lincoln's son also went to the other Washington theater ( the National Theater) that night, and the only reason that Seward lived through the stabbing, was due to his neck brace. Kauffman gives us a new and fresh look at the people involved. Like Edwin Stanton's arrival at the Peterson house. We are told about his taking charge that night, but something usually looked over in the assassination literature, and that was this man of cold steel, going into see the dying president, (and quite a shock to those who knew Stanton) and instead of giving out orders to those around him, he broke down and sobbed.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent research
Review: Read lots of Lincoln books. Oftentimes, find them reptitive so tend to skip parts. Read all of this, interesting details and disproves many things that have become "facts". It would seem every paragraph required new research which is well documented.

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Summary: Bucky Sappenfield of Columbus, OH
Review: Splendid book...very well written and abundant in detail. I could not put it down and highly recommend it to all interested in this turning point in history.

Rating:
Summary: A Straight Forward, Well Told Version
Review: The murder of Lincoln has become an oft told tale and now Michael W. Kauffman brings out American Brutus to add to the pile. And it is a good job that he has. The story begin with the actual attack and goes chronologically through the rest of the night, setting the stage for the rest of the book, including a vivid description of the Seward slashings, until the death of Lincoln. The book then covers the part of the story that takes place builing up to the event and then follows with the manhunts and trials aferwards. It is a thorough and well-told tale with the author providing all the facts in a very informative and entertaining fashion. He clears up many misconceptions while leaving some issues a little cloudier, based upon surviving evidence (such as the true involvement of Mrs. Surratt). It is a very engrossing read.