Stealing Lincoln's Body
The book, Stealing Lincoln 's Body, written by Thomas J. Craughwell, reveals an historic crime involving the stealing of a deceased president. The book starts out in the 1600 's explaining how the United States develops its monetary system along with counterfeiting. Craughwell develops narrative style and develops the progression of counterfeiting and how the United States government reacted to these crimes This leads to the creation of the United States Secret Service and then goes on into the actual procedures of stealing Lincoln 's corpse and holding it for ransom. The books central theme is revolved around the classic case of cops versus robbers to retell a forgotten incident of the past. There is not a thesis, or a purpose. In the acknowledgement Craughwell simply stated that he wanted to retell the story his father told him as a boy however he wanted the historical accuracy of the story. Craughwell retells this forgotten story in detail within just 210 pages.
The author is Thomas J. Craughwell, born in 1956, and still living today. The book was written in 2007, when he was at the age of 51 years old. In the annotated bibliography it is shown that the author used a tremendous amount of sources. Providing ten pages of bibliography it seems he utilizes many primary sources however the majority consisted of secondary sources. From reading the style of the book and the bibliography, it was revealed that he was indeed bias. For example, the primary sources he used were based on a human aspect which through interviews can provide human bias. However Craughwell shows no personal bias in descriptions of the people in his book; he uses past police records and describes the characters based on these reports (173). I find that the facts presented are correct because Thomas J. Craughwell clearly shows his amount of knowledge and the research of this incident along with his research team. Yes, his interpretations seem valid, and he even gave us direct wording of the
The author is Thomas J. Craughwell, born in 1956, and still living today. The book was written in 2007, when he was at the age of 51 years old. In the annotated bibliography it is shown that the author used a tremendous amount of sources. Providing ten pages of bibliography it seems he utilizes many primary sources however the majority consisted of secondary sources. From reading the style of the book and the bibliography, it was revealed that he was indeed bias. For example, the primary sources he used were based on a human aspect which through interviews can provide human bias. However Craughwell shows no personal bias in descriptions of the people in his book; he uses past police records and describes the characters based on these reports (173). I find that the facts presented are correct because Thomas J. Craughwell clearly shows his amount of knowledge and the research of this incident along with his research team. Yes, his interpretations seem valid, and he even gave us direct wording of the
Bibliography: Craughwell, Thomas. Stealing Lincoln 's Body. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2008.