Lincoln Seen and Heard.

• Author: Pfau, Michael
• Position: Book Reviews

Lincoln Seen and Heard. By Harold Holzer. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2000; pp. 240. $ 29.95.

Harold Holzer's Lincoln Seen and Heard represents a unique union of two largely disparate strands of rhetorical inquiry. The first, Lincoln studies, has a long and venerable career within the circles of argument and rhetoric scholarship. The second, known variously as "visual rhetoric," "visual argument," or the "rhetoric of the image," is of more recent vintage; and scholars in this area continue to develop conceptions that assist us in understanding the rhetorical character of sight and images. Holzer succeeds in uniting Lincoln studies and the rhetoric of the image through his wide-ranging account of the role of portraits, prints, caricatures, and engravings in antebellum politics, and his exploration of the role of the "graphic arts" in shaping "Lincoln's public image."

Lincoln Seen and Heard is a collection of revised and expanded essays united under three heads. Part One, entitled "Father, Martyr, Myth," considers the pictorial basis of Lincoln's image as emancipator and commander-in-chief; as well as visual representations of his assassination. Part Two, "Controversy and Public Memory," compares Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in popular prints, and examines Lincoln cartoons and caricature in the South. Part Three, "The Gift of Language and the Language of Gifts," reviews Lincoln's impromptu oratory, explores the language of the Emancipation Proclamation, and evaluates Lincoln's performance at Gettysburg. These essays range widely, but it is possible to identify several persistent themes and specific claims that ought to be of particular interest for rhetoric and argument scholars.

Parts One and Two focus on Lincoln in pictures and images. These sections speak generally regarding the contexts conditioning the visual medium in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as more specifically about the development of Lincoln's image. On the level of the visual medium, Holzer elucidates the production context (particularly the material aspects) of nineteenth century prints, makes useful generalizations regarding their reception within the culture, and specifies the political contexts and controversies within which these prints appeared. Within this theoretical framework Holzer traces the manner in which Lincoln's public image evolved and transformed.

Pervading Holzer's various essays is an emphasis on the broad distribution and "potential...