The first key to a good close reading of a Lincoln document is to find the right document. \u00a0Such a choice always involves a shifting set of priorities: \u00a0what interests you, what might interest your particular audience, and what has possibly escaped the attention of\u00a0other scholars.<\/p>\n
The Lincoln’s Writings site is organized to help you navigate this selection process. \u00a0To begin, the site has already identified 150 of Lincoln’s “most teachable” writings, organized by themes and even ranked in order of teachability<\/a>. \u00a0You can decide for yourself if you agree with such a list. \u00a0The fullest edition of Lincoln’s Writings, known as the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln<\/a>\u00a0(1953), is available online through the Abraham Lincoln Association. \u00a0 Even the\u00a0Collected Works,\u00a0<\/em>however, is not totally comprehensive. \u00a0There have been two published supplements over the years (1974, 1990), but neither is currently searchable online. \u00a0In addition, since the publication of the second supplement in 1990, researchers have continued to identify previously unknown or missing Lincoln documents. \u00a0The good news is that most of these recently discovered writings are now available online at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, if you are a contrarian by nature, go find your own Lincoln document and explain why it should have made our list. \u00a0We publish some of those, too. \u00a0Here is the page where you can find these “alt-Lincoln” documents<\/a>. \u00a0 Yet just beware that there are many fraudulent Lincoln documents lurking around on the web. \u00a0Even House Divided Project has been victimized by that unfortunate circumstance<\/a>\u00a0back in 2012. \u00a0So if you are seeking your own document for a close reading outside of our list \u00a0–just check with us first.<\/p>\n But if you are happy\u00a0to stay within the framework of our designated 150 “most teachable” Lincoln documents, we have also provided several tools to help you answer the navigational questions above. \u00a0We have included\u00a0tags on all of the documents, so that you can search them by special topics. \u00a0All of those topics or tags are listed at this page<\/a>. \u00a0Here is how it might work for you:<\/p>\n Special topic tags are incredibly helpful for this kind of selection decision. \u00a0We even have a hidden tag for “Needs Close Reading.” \u00a0There are actually just over one-third of the 150 documents at this site that are still missing a good example of a close reading effort. \u00a0If you want to make your biggest contribution to our multi-media effort\u00a0and to your fellow students and educators, you might want to peruse this list most carefully:<\/p>\n But no matter what you initially decide, you are going to want to research a little bit about the document, its context and how much attention it has received from other scholars before you make a final selection. \u00a0All of the documents at this site contain\u00a0links to resources “On This Date” that can help you see what else was happening in the nation at large \u00a0(HD Daily Report)\u00a0and also in Lincoln’s daily schedule (The Lincoln Log). \u00a0Many of the document pages here also contain additional materials such as maps, images, other primary sources and even excerpts from leading scholars (How Historians Interpret) that can help launch your own research process. \u00a0Most important as you get started, however, we have created a Research Guide<\/a> that offers our best recommendations for how to pursue primary and secondary sources essential for shaping a good close reading. \u00a0Taking advantage of that tool\u00a0will not only help make up your mind about the right document, but also will set you in motion toward a finished close reading essay that will\u00a0sparkle with insights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first key to a good close reading of a Lincoln document is to find the right document. \u00a0Such a choice always involves a shifting set of priorities: \u00a0what interests you, what might interest your particular audience, and what has possibly escaped the attention of\u00a0other scholars. The Lincoln’s Writings site is organized to help you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4477","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4478,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4477\/revisions\/4478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n