A "people's history" of Lincoln

Since tommorrow is Abe Lincoln's birthday, I thought I'd dig up some stuff about him from the most awesome historian ever, Howard Zinn:

Lincoln's first Innaugural Address, in March 1861, was conciliatory toward the South and the seceded states: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." [...] It was only as the war grew more bitter, the casualties mounted, desperation to win heightened, and the criticism of the abolitionists threatened to unravel the tattered coalition behind Lincoln that he began to act against slavery.




Leave it to Zinn to put and ice cold wet blanket over anything that you read in your grade school history book.