A Passionate Addiction to Lincoln

No historical figure became as prominent in 1930s America as Abraham Lincoln. Once seen mainly as a figure of moderation and reconciliation, Lincoln became a more powerful figure associated with state building and the broadly defined work of emancipation. Under the influence of poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, important parallels were drawn between Lincoln and FDR. Yet, because of Roosevelt’s limited attention to racial oppression, there was a tendency to make Lincoln a more race neutral figure, one who freed white people more than black. At the same time, African Americans, who were increasingly shifting their political interests to the Democratic Party, invested Lincoln with more of a racial justice agenda. Conservatives, for their part, took aim at the way New Dealers and Popular Fronters re-imagined Lincoln, especially on the Federal stage.