Word: lincolnã
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...Lincoln??€™s contemporaries, Shenk says, saw melancholy as a temperamental style, as part of someone’s character. Those afflicted by melancholy might have been more prone to nervous states or debilitating disease. But melancholy was part of a spectrum...
...despite the focus on Lincoln??€™s depression, particularly in the discussion of his life before the presidency, Shenk’s book becomes more about Lincoln??€™s admirable character traits than his mental illness. Shenk’s eloquent explications of Lincoln??€™s speeches—as well as anecdotes of Lincoln??€™s kindness and good sense of humor—become more intriguing than the book’s argument that his great asset was his melancholy...
...Perhaps this is because Lincoln tempered his depressive episodes as a public figure and older man. But the reader is left with the impression that many qualities separate from Lincoln??€™s depression—including his persistence and his famous lack of malice toward the South—contributed more to his greatness...
...book adds another nuance to our romanticized portrait of the Illinois Rail-Splitter. But the argument that Lincoln??€™s mental condition was central to his greatness loses steam...
That said, Shenk believes that Lincoln??€™s depression cannot be separated from his personality, and that the modern tendency to see depression as distinctly separate from ordinary mental states isn’t accurate...