ABRAHAM LINCOLN LOOKS DOWN ON US in magisterial dominion from his throne in Washington's biggest monument-the American demigod. There is some justice in the symbol, because it was Lincoln who, with rivers of blood, destroyed the old Constitutional Union and founded the American nation that we know. As M.E. Bradford writes: "The truth about the life and death of Lincoln seems to matter very little when it is confronted by the myth." Even though, he adds, there is "God's plenty of evidence" to challenge the myth.

In these essays, M.E. Bradford and Thomas Landess, high-caliber scholars, thinkers, and writers, examine aspects of Lincoln with the realism that is normally applied to any historical figure. What they find is revealing to everyone who will take note. Now that the American nation seems to have passed its peak, getting right with the real Lincoln may be essential to our survival.