Lincoln’s Image in the American Schoolbook

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln's image in American school books has reflected the shifting political and social landscape of American society. Following Lincoln's assassination in 1865, textbooks for the next half century portrayed him as a martyr for a mostly evangelical Protestant nation and as a role model for African Americans. The centennial of Lincoln's birth in 1909 and the massive immigration during the first two decades of the twentieth century broadened the image of Lincoln in textbooks as a common man and an inspiration for American diversity.