Award-winning author DL Fowler (the Lincoln Guy) transports readers into his characters’ inner worlds. His bestselling work, Lincoln Raw-a biographical novel, imagines how Lincoln viewed the world in which he came of age. DL Fowler’s book, Lincoln Raw is curated in the Lincoln Collection of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
Dorothy says, “I am proud to say I am responsible for Larry Fowler being called “The Lincoln Guy” – He’ll talk about how Lincoln’s era contrasted with ours.
On Bill Radke’s November 8, 2024, KUOW podcast The Week in Review, his panel wrestled over whether we should continue to focus on divisions and whether we should react differently to hateful rhetoric. I’ve noticed listeners frequently register surprise when they discover how current controversies often spring from wounds of long ago that fester and remain unhealed. Let’s be real. Our nation has always wrangled over the meaning of liberty and the question of who is entitled to it—sometimes at a severe cost.
During Stephen Douglas’s 1860 presidential campaign, he championed the idea of government by, for, and of the white man, in contrast with Abraham Lincoln’s hopes for a government of, by, and for the people.
Larry Fowler notes, “I am Larry Fowler, often called The Lincoln Guy. During the tenth anniversary celebration of my multi-award-winning series, Abraham Lincoln’s Lost Stories, I have been struck by how the results of the 2024 election may reveal what might have happened had Stephen Douglas won the White House instead of Lincoln. Two constitutional amendments, the 13th which abolished slavery and the 14th which diminished States Rights and enshrined birthright citizenship in the Constitution, would never have passed. Both increased resentment in the southern states when ratified, and attacks on the latter will likely escalate in the coming months.
Larry shares these stories with our listeners on today’s show:
1) Lincoln feared that Douglas’s election would open the door for white supremacy to dominate the entire Western Hemisphere.
2) Lincoln fretted that slavery might no longer be limited to race and that others who fell outside societal norms were at risk of enslavement.
3) In the decade before the Civil War, mounting threats validated Lincoln’s anxieties (e.g. the “filibuster” movement, Bleeding Kansas, and the Dred Scott decision).
Lincoln’s determination to stop the spread of Douglas’s ideology was at the root of a bloody war that cost nearly a million American lives and left many more maimed. Leila Fadel’s NPR interview with actor Jude Law and screenwriter Zach Baylin underscored how their recently released film, The Order, demonstrates that threats similar to those that fueled Lincoln’s angst are still alive today. The question is not whether advancement of the American dream will continue to demand a high price, rather it is will we have the resolve to pay the piper.
The three titles in Abraham Lincoln’s Lost Stories Series have been honored by various organizations including American Writing Awards, the Hawthorne Prize, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Chanticleer International Book Awards, Midwest Book Review, Readers’ Favorite, Historical Fiction
Find more at the author’s website at https://www.dlfowler.com/