Lincoln's Smile and Other Enigmas

"Lincoln's Smiledemonstrates why Alan Trachtenberg has been the leading scholar in American studies for more than four decades." Â--Casey Nelson Blake, Columbia University Alan Trachtenberg has always been interested in cultural artifacts that register meanings and feelings that Americans share even when they disagree about them. Some of the most beloved onesÂ--like the famous last photograph of Abraham Lincoln, taken at the time of his second inauguralÂ--are downright puzzling, and it is their obscure, riddlelike aspects that draw his attention in the scintillating essays ofLincoln's Smile and Other Enigmas. With matchless authority, Trachtenberg moves from daguerreotypes to literary texts to subjects as diverse as Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the early works of Lewis Mumford.

Alan Trachtenberg is the Neil Gray, Jr. Professor Emeritus of English and American studies at Yale University, where he taught for thirty-five years. His books include Shades of Hiawatha (H&W, 2004).