Assassination of Lincoln: A History of the Great Conspiracy

Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey), 1817-1906Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 1.1M words
Chapters: 108

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy by T. M. HarrisAuthor: Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey), 1817-1906,Language: English, Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865), Release Date: Jun 1, 2013

Editor's review

This book examines the assassination of Lincoln. Writing from the perspective of the military and political figures of the Civil War era, T. M. Harris traces the origins and development of the so-called "great conspiracy," covering the planning of the assassination, the relationships among those involved, and the postwar pursuit and trial of the participants. As a monograph published in the nineteenth century, its value lies in preserving an early narrative framework and the way historical sources were organized at the time, making it useful to readers studying the historiography and public memory of the assassination. The book lays out the conspiracy network in considerable detail, but it carries the judgmental biases of the author's era, and some claims need to be checked against later scholarship. It is suitable as supplementary reading for Lincoln studies or the political history of the late Civil War period, and for readers interested in the relationship between conspiracy narratives and historical writing. This is a public-domain English e-book; readers should familiarize themselves with the basic historical background before reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of historiography on the Lincoln assassination and the postwar trials
Advanced readers interested in the political history of the late Civil War
Readers concerned with how conspiracy narratives are written and disseminated
College students needing early monographs as comparative source material

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking only a concise Lincoln biography or popular introduction
Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century English prose who do not need a comparison
Readers expecting the conclusions of modern historical scholarship

Reading tips

First learn the basic facts of the assassination and the main figures involved, then read the book
Compare the book's account with later scholarship, distinguishing fact from the author's judgments
Focus on the conspiracy planning and trial sections, taking notes on the relationships among figures
If the English is difficult, read the table of contents and concluding chapters first, then return to detailed passages

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How reliable are the historical sources in this book?

This is a nineteenth-century monograph that preserves an early narrative framework and the way sources were organized at the time, but it carries the judgmental biases of the author's era, and some claims differ from later scholarship. It is best used as early source material and as material for the history of historiography, read in comparison with modern scholarly works.

What background knowledge is needed before reading?

It helps to first understand the basic situation at the end of the Civil War, the course of the assassination, and the names and roles of the main figures involved. With this background, the dense names and event threads in the book are easier to follow; otherwise, start with a concise Lincoln biography or an overview of the event.

Is this book suitable as classroom supplementary material?

It can serve as supplementary material for courses on Civil War history or Lincoln studies, showing how an early work organized the narrative of the assassination. It should not be used alone as a conclusive source; instructors should pair it with modern scholarship and guide students to compare the writing and judgments of different periods.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey), 1817-1906 Author · American · 1817–1906

Thomas Mealey Harris (1817–1906) was an American physician, soldier, and politician, though public information about the details of his life is limited. He left behind one historical work on the Lincoln assassination, Assassination of Lincoln: A History of the Great Conspiracy, which is the only work by him held in this collection. The book recounts the assassination of Lincoln and the conspiracy behind it, placing it within the field of nineteenth-century American political history and historical writing. Given the limited material available, it is difficult to describe his writing style or influence in detail; readers may regard the work as a text combining a contemporary perspective with a narrative historical intent, useful for studying the Lincoln assassination and the political context of the time.