There are a lot of differences between Pakistan and America when it comes to leaders and leadership. One big difference is how people celebrate their leaders. In Pakistan when people praise a leader they talk about family heritage, wealth, big universities and achievements, nobody ever mention failures. In America people talk about their leader’s failures, how they cope with it and what they become after those failures. ‘Lincoln the Unknown’ is a great example of it.
One of my friends back home, a University Lecturer, is a huge fan and every time we have a conversation about America he mentions Lincoln. But Lincoln remained a figure from history until I picked up Dale Carnegie’s Lincoln the Unknown.
The book reads like a novel. It traces Lincoln’s family tree before he was born and goes on after his assassination. Carnegie’s research is extremely detailed and seem impeccable but in the attempt of making sense of history for the reader and bringing Lincoln to life he seem to mix his opinion with the facts every once in a while and as a reader you have to make a conscious effort to differentiate where Carnegie is sharing his observation of historical facts and where he is stating actual facts.
The last few chapters of the book are one of the most shocking revelations of the book. Carnegie traces in real time what became of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth and attempts of stealing Lincoln’s remains.
Here is a PDF version of the book: http://www.godfire.net/Lincoln_Unknown_Dale_Carnegie.pdf
Hali Writes 