A thrilling dive into the little-known, darker side of a revered
president's history, Lincoln's Lie untangles the threads behind a
mysterious 1864 newspaper article to reveal how Lincoln manipulated the
media during the Civil War, shining new light onto today's issues of
fake news and presidential conflict with the press.
In 1864, during the bloodiest days of the Civil War, two newspapers
published a call, allegedly authored by President Lincoln, for the
immediate conscription of 400,000 more Union soldiers. New York streets
erupted in pandemonium. Wall Street markets went wild.
When Lincoln sent troops to seize the newspaper presses and arrest the
editors, it became clear: The proclamation was a lie. Who put out this
fake news? Was it a Confederate spy hoping to incite another draft riot?
A political enemy out to ruin the president in an election year? Or was
there some truth to the proclamation - far more truth than anyone
suspected?
Unpacking this overlooked historical mystery for the first time,
journalist Elizabeth Mitchell takes listeners on a dramatic journey from
newspaper offices filled with heroes and charlatans to the haunted White
House confinement of Mary Todd Lincoln, from the packed pews of the
celebrated preacher Reverend Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church to the
War Department offices in the nation's capital and a Grand Jury trial.
In Lincoln's Lie, Mitchell brings to life the remarkable story of the
manipulators of the news and why they decided to play such a dangerous
game during a critical period of American history. Her account of
Lincoln's troubled relationship to the press and its role in the Civil
War is one that speaks powerfully to our current political crises: fake
news, profiteering, Constitutional conflict, and a president at war with
the press.
