Night Waves - Lincoln

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2013

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This Night Waves special is devoted to Abraham Lincoln. As Steven Spielberg's new biopic of Lincoln is released in the UK, the pioneering president remains a towering figure in American life. And yet his legacy is not without controversy. Was he really such a saintly figure? And why should Barack Obama feel such a strong connection with Lincoln? Rana Mitter and guests discuss the man, the politics and the legacy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.4	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.9	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	This is a download from the BBC.
0:34.0	For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three. Hello, that music was written in 1942. When the United States was at war and Aaron Copeland
1:00.1	was asked to write a musical portrait of a figure to inspire the nation. The person chosen was
1:05.2	Abraham Lincoln. Nearly a century and a half after his assassination, the 16th chief executive of the US still tops every survey of historians on who was the best president of all time.
1:17.1	His leadership spanned the American Civil War, when the young republic threatened to split in half, part slave and part free.
1:23.8	In the process, he became the most prominent figure in American life, and he's remained a figure of debate ever since.
1:30.0	His stowpipe hat and foxy manner instantly recognisable.
1:34.5	Just a few hours ago, we saw the inauguration of his successor, but 28, Barack Obama,
1:39.6	who was sworn in on the Bible that had belonged to Abraham Lincoln, the first president ever to do so.
1:46.2	Today is also Martin Luther King Day, commemorating one of the inheritors of the troubled legacy
1:51.0	of Lincoln's Republic. And Stephen Spielberg's biopic of Honest Abe is out this week. It stars
1:57.8	Daniel Day Lewis and details the political manoeuvings of just one month, January 1865,
2:03.5	when the 13th Amendment banning slavery was in danger of being rejected by Congress.
2:09.3	Blood's been spilled to afford us this moment now, now, now!
2:14.9	And you grousal and heckle and dodge about like pettifugging Tammany Hole hocksters?
2:21.3	See what is before you.
2:24.0	See the here and now.
2:26.0	That's the hardest thing.
2:28.2	The only thing that it counts.
	...

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