This Website highlights three published books. (NOTE: The Lincoln Era-Glimpses of Humanity in Chaotic Times is only available on Kindle). There are also over 100 blogs included, with one or two articles added each month (click on blogs above). Contact the author at gadorris2@gmail.com.
BOOK 1-
Abraham Lincoln – An Uncommon, Common Man
Lincoln was a complicated man; unassuming but ambitious, honest but wily, humorous but occasionally despondent, spiritual but not religious, and he thought slavery was evil but condoned its legality until late in his life. The author, as narrator, tells of Lincoln's magnanimity in both victory and defeat, his continual quest for self-improvement, his personal tragedies, and his compassion in the midst of war. However, Lincoln was a pragmatic politician who pushed the Emancipation Proclamation although it did not free many slaves, used patronage to secure votes, and ordered the extraordinary use of Presidential War Powers. His life story is told in a generally chronological series of chapters focused on a time or specific event in Lincoln's life from his childhood to his time in New Salem on his own, his “adventure in the Law,” his close relationship with friends, his political career, his family, his unlikely rise to become President of the United States, and the monumental decisions he faced during the Civil War.
Gary Dorris grew up in the small coal mining town of Zeigler in Southern Illinois. The town and School libraries held numerous volumes favorable to Lincoln, but also had books critical of Lincoln's actions during the Civil War. Dorris studied both perspectives and developed a life-long admiration of Lincoln. Dorris graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1964 and was commissioned as an Air Force Officer.