American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies

I purchased this book with the audio book for a really good deal. Spent less than $20 for the two.It's a long read (and listen) and you have to really be paying attention because of all the little minut details that you can easily miss.I often found myself flipping back pages to start a section over because I was distracted by my surroundings. I have two kids under the age of four so it's not surprising that I couldn't keep up.What I really enjoyed about this book was that the author took into account the mindset and way of life at the time. We too often view history through a modern lens and often hold the people to our standards when those standards were foreign to them.What was very similar to our time was the bashing and name calling of political figures by the media (newspapers at that time) and it's not hard to understand why Booth and his conspirators did what they did and expected a different outcome than what they received.While the talking heads literally called for Lincoln's assassination in print they then turned around and damned those that took action to do it.They saw themselves as would be heroes and saviors of their country basically because that was what they were lead to believe by popular opinion.While nothing excuses them of their wrongdoing, I believe from what I learned in this book based on real articles at the time that those involved were thoroughly convinced that assassination of the northern leaders was noble and well deserved.I come away with a different perspective and one that clears up a lot of confusion that I had while reading other books on the topic.Lewis Powell is my main focus of interest and unfortunately there isn't much said on him apart from what I've heard repeated over and over and he's wholly unaccounted for for the duration of Booth and Herold's getaway. The trial is where he gets the most attention and I think that's basically because Booth had died previous.Booth's actions/words/history are recorded to the point where one can write a screen play on just him and satisfy any Booth fan's expectations.This author is just short of living in 1865 and witnessing these events in person. Well researched and very knowledgeable.

"American Brutus" has got to be the greatest crime story of all time. It's written with an immediacy that keeps you on the edge of your seat, reading nervously as the horrible plots unfold. We all know how the story ends but, oh my, the details along the way - the characters, motivations and complications are endlessly fascinating. I am not an assassination buff, so many details of the story were new to me.I was awed by the many eye-witness accounts of the fateful night at Ford's Theater. It was sort of like watching Lincoln's assassination being covered live on CNN (including inaccuracies and fabrications). I'd never read such detail before. It was also interesting to see how the police and military followed various leads, many of them fruitless, in search of the conspirators who targeted Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward (who was stabbed and severely injured while at home). I didn't know how long Booth plotted against Lincoln or how many co-conspirators were involved or how many individuals aided his attempted escape to the south. I knew he was a southern sympathizer bitter at the South's defeat, but I hadn't realized what a manipulator Booth was and what delusions of grandeur he had. The book takes you through his miserable death, the trials of the conspirators, the executions of some and the pardons of others.Even tho "American Brutus" is long, the story is so exciting and it has such a brisk pace that it felt like a quick read. My only suggestion is that future editions have a "cast of characters" section listing the names and roles or titles of major players. There are hundreds of individuals involved in this amazing story - government officials, military officers, investigators, conspirators, witnesses, newspapermen, you name it. It would have helped to have a little "cheat sheet" to look back on to reacquaint oneself with a person who played some role, then showed up again later in the story. A related read that is highly recommended: James Swanson's  Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (P.S.) .

A very interesting and thorough examination of John Wilkes Booth's errant conspiracy on Abraham Lincoln .Unfortunately a bit too ponderous and ambling although thorough.Almost 500 pages could have been 300 and more concise and to the point. Point being that Booth was no madman , but seriously deluded about the preservation of the U.S. from a very excellent and totally obsessed actor , who seemed to allow his love of high drama to rule his life.

I gave this one four stars, although there were parts of the book that dragged quite a bit, and I wish I'd read it in book form rather than on Kindle because it would have been easier to read the notes that way. I've been interested in the Lincoln assassination since I was very young, and I probably will continue to read every book on it, even if there isn't all that much new in them. This book includes much about JWB that I've never read before, and for that material, five stars are deserved. The hunt for JWB dragged a bit, and though much of the material on the trial was new to me, I didn't find the writing all that compelling. I'd say American Brutus is for readers who know quite a bit about the assassination and are willing to move back and forth through the text to find the bits new to them. This is not a book chiefly on JWB, as the title suggests.

excellent