Total Number of Ratings: 3
Manhunt: John Wilkes Booth is more Interesting than Almost Anything
Monday, December 15, 2008 12:20 PM
It is one thing to write a fiction story about a character who is a famous actor who decides to kill the president and succeeds. it's another thing when you realize that actually happened.
Can you imagine being wealthy, respected, well known, and happy, traveling from theater to theater, having beautiful women throw themselves at you, and having everything you ever wanted, but being so dissatisfied with the state of things that you'd throw it all away to murder the most beloved man in the country. That's what John Wilkes Booth did, and not even Tom Cruise is that crazy. Actually...
I'd previously read American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, and enjoyed it a great deal. It took a look at who Booth was, where he came from and how he ended up in Ford's Theater with murder on his mind. It's a very detailed examination of him and his confederates. It was intensely interesting, but not necessarily "page-turning".
I received James L Swanson's Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer as a gift, based on how much I'd enjoyed the former book. I hadn't heard of it, but shortly after, I heard the news about an HBO miniseries produced by Tom Fontana (Homicide, Oz) and David Simon (The Wire). As these are two of my favorite purveyors of TV ever, I figured I better get to reading.
The thing that makes this book really stand out, in terms of historical retellings, is that it's told as if it were a fiction novel. Since Swanson is a Lincoln expert of the highest order, he fills in many details that would usually be left out of a strictly academic re-telling, and does so in a way that you start to understand the personal side of things rather than just what happened. From what Booth left, including letters and diary entries, he creates a character who is completely real, from someone who became legend. Yet at the end, when you really have learned to feel for Booth in some way, we're reminded that he was a racist and a murderer.
I've never read about the murder at Ford's Theater in such a way that I really felt I understood how it was laid out, and how it felt to be there, walking through those back halls, and in the vestibule to the presidential box. I never understood the time frame of how long it took for Booth to shoot, fight off Major Rathbone, and leap to the stage, breaking his leg in the process. The book made me think of what it must have sounded like in that room at the moment. Having read American Brutus before hand, I didn't think I was going to learn much from this book, but I did. It was made real, and I understood.
The problem with this book, as with many good books, is that when it's over, you want more. And of course, there are plenty of historical events and happenings that need documentation and context, but James Swanson took years to put together these compelling 500 pages, so it'll probably be a while. People who can write about history in this way are treasures, and bring us to understanding in a way that the best history teachers I've ever had couldn't do.
The assassination of Lincoln is far more interesting than it was ever taught to me. In contrast to the Kennedy assassination, we're also provided with many of the answers, which makes it a far more satisfying study than the Kennedy case, which only leaves you guessing at the end of the day. Either way, this book went a long way in helping me understand who these people actually were, and what would make them make the kind of epoch shifting choices they made. I can't recommend Manhunt more strongly.
I have been meaning to make it to the Mudd House since I inevitably pass by it (literally) several times a year. I am not sure what the museum offers in the way of artifacts besides the house itself, but I am sure that it will be worth my time. I will be sure to read this book before heading there. Thanks for the review.
Hey Josh, I just finished Manhunt, and your review is dead-on.
It's funny, I was about to comment how this book should be turned into a movie, and then discovered by re-reading your review that this is going to be an HBO miniseries. (I somehow missed this the first time.) I thought the part of Dr. Mudd's interview had a vivid movie like quality to it.
I found the differences in technology and culture from our own to be especially interesting. Things such as:
- What does it mean for a President to die in a theater, and especially on Good Friday?
- How does one hideout silently when ones means of transportation is a living, breathing, and eating horse?
- How might one wound a Southern gentlemen?
- And how might such a wounding be dramatically different in the case of a former slave.
But I also kept seeing the similarities between then and now. Swanson's brief comments about steamboat traffic being stopped reminded me of grounded airlines on September 11th.
And you were dead-on with Booth as a character in the book. I didn't realize how much I was "sympathizing" with him, until an encounter on his part brought into sharp focus the kind of villain he was.
Again, thanks for bringing this to our attention!
Okay, I've been very slowly reading Team of Rivals, but I realize I'm looking for more action or adventure or whatever right now. (Mind you, Team of Rivals is a good book, but you do need to be in the right mind set to read it all.)
Thanks for the recommendation, Josh. I'm going to give it a go.
I would also recommend AMERICAN BRUTUS (which I guess implies that I also recommend MANHUNT, which I don't, I haven't read it yet so I can't recommend or not yet... it's my next read). BRUTUS is apparently more a study of Booth himself though it goes into great detail of the plot to assassinate Lincoln and the aftermath. I was shocked to find out how much I didn't know about this subject. It's shameful, really.
Thanks for the recommendation of American Brutus. I'll put it on my to read list.
I've just started Manhunt, and am enjoying it, even though the man hunt hasn't even started yet (Lincoln has only now been shot).
One funny personal note, in the second chapter there is a section in which Swanson briefly speculates on the idea that if Lincoln only seen Booth he might managed to defend himself quite well against an attack. He states, "[Lincoln] would have been a formidable opponent...Abraham fighting back...is not as far fetched as it sounds" (page 43). The next day or so I was looking around the web for no good reason, when I encountered a page devoted to the scene from West Coast Avengers #55 in which Abraham Lincoln on an alternative Earth does defend himself from attack from John Wilkes Booth.
The web page states this is Earth-9002 in the Marvel comics universe.
Wow, you really can find anything on the web!
funny. All I know about John Wilkes Boothe I learned from Assassination Vacation. I'll pick this up. You have totally piqued my interest.
I picked this up at a Brooklyn sidewalk sale, realized I had already read it, and proceeded to dive right in again anyway.
It's amazing how little most people don't know about Boothe and the Lincoln assassination in general. I consider myself to be pretty well-read and up on things, but when I read AMERICAN BRUTUS I was shocked to find I didn't know anything about what actually happened. I find the story to be so fascinating that I bought MANHUNT as well and it's sitting on my "to-read" stack.
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I have been meaning to read this since I first read this article. I have some extra cash this week, so will be picking it up tomorrow morning then go home and get reading. Sounds fascinating.