Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

Remember That Time Abraham Lincoln Tried to Get the Slaves to Leave America?

lincoln-portrait

There’s an Abraham Lincoln you probably know: the tall, bearded, badass President who freed the slaves with his axe while fighting off the Confederate Army, which may or may not have been made up of vampires. Other than the beard—and what a beard it was—and his stature, the Lincoln in Lincoln isn’t really Lincoln. Rather, Spielberg’s character, and the Lincoln that permeates our culture, is one of the ideal, unflawed statesman. The movie covers up his warts and makes him less interesting and less human. Oh, and it ignores the fact that he tried to convince the slaves he so famously ... Read More

Of Course the Civil War Was About Slavery

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are holding a gala this week in Charleston, S.C., a hundred-dollar-a-ticket affair celebrating the state’s secession from the Union 150 years ago. It’s the first of countless commemorations planned for the coming four years — lectures, conferences, parades, re-enactments, museum exhibitions and government proclamations — to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. The Charleston “Secession Ball” — advertised as “an event of a lifetime” — includes a theatrical re-enactment of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession (the original ... Read More