Why read Killing Lincoln, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard?  We already know the story, right?   No, we don’t.    Mostly what we know came from a short paragraph in a middle school history book that summed up the entire American Civil War in one page.  We memorized enough clichés to answer three multiple questions on the test, and moved on to the next chapter.

If you want to know American history, you’ve got to dig deeper.  Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have done that for you. And, my prejudice is that every American should be able to recount America’s major events, with depth and understanding.

Killing Lincoln is history, couched in a thriller that brings the story to life.  The characters involved in this drama were flesh and blood, with families, fears, hopes, dreams, and often dreadful shortcomings.

This is not the history you remember, but a well-told tale that has the pages flapping and new questions running as fast as deer through a dark forest.

Picture the bloodiest war in American history coming to an end on Virginia’s bloody battlefields.  Lee’s army is finally defeated, the south subjugated, the slaves freed. 

Yet, Lincoln still cannot rest.  There’s a nation to rebuild.  His cold-blooded murder by a southern sympathizer will lead the United States in a different direction than the one Mr. Lincoln imaged.  The starting point will be marked in blood in Ford’s Theater, within walking distance of the White House. What followed left a deeper wound that even impacts today’s America.

What was America like on the day of the fatal shot?  Lincoln’s America is one you and I would not recognize.  The District of Columbia is a sprawl of dirt streets, galloping horses, and saloons on every corner.  Want to talk to President Lincoln?  Stroll into the White House and wait your turn, or spend the night in a hallway and catch him in the morning.  If you want to hear him speak, just gather with the multitudes on the White House lawn.  Get as close as the crowds will allow.  Security?  Well, sure, but let’s not let it interfere with strolling to the closest bar and tipping a cool one.

The war is over.  Why not celebrate with a little gunfire and a lot of whiskey.  And what about John Wilkes Booth?  What was he like and how did he think he could possibly get away with killing a victorious President?  What did he hope to accomplish?

Just in case you have strong Liberal leanings, and flinch at the mention of Bill O’Reilly’s name, have no fear.  Killing Lincoln, written in the style of a novelist telling a story, is straight with the facts, including an array of colorful asides that bring the characters to you in brilliant, living color.

This is no ideologue’s slanted, slash and burn, feeble attempt at a rewrite.  It’s a dynamic retelling of events leading to the first American President being assassinated, couched in his life and times, and adorned with the hopes and dreams that all ended with the crack of a pistol shot.

Part thriller and all history, just pour yourself a glass of your favorite, pick up Killing Lincoln, and you’ll be drawn into an America you never knew, and an event that changed the shape of America forever.