The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln - Softcover

Neely PhD, Director Mark E; McMurtry, R Gerald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809318954 ISBN 13: 9780809318957

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr, 2001

Synopsis

The Insanity File In 1875 Robert Todd Lincoln caused his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln, to be committed to an insane asylum. Based on newly discovered manuscript materials, this book seeks to explain how and why.In these documents--marked by Robert Todd Lincoln as the "MTL Insanity File"--exists the only definitive record of the tragic story of Mary Todd Lincoln's insanity trial. The book that results from these letters and documents addresses several areas of controversy in the life of the widow of Abraham Lincoln: the extent of her illness, the fairness of her trial, and the motives of those who had her committed for treatment. Related issues include the status of women under t...

About this title

Review:

"Neely and McMurtry had to acquaint themselves with the principals in the case, study the judicial procedures and medical practices prevailing in the 1870s, piece together from here and there items of information relating to the trial, and trace historical controversies that have unfolded through the years. Their sensitive and thorough research has led them to the conclusion that Mrs. Lincoln was treated fairly, that human considerations and civil justice did not work to Mrs. Lincoln's disadvantage."--Myron A. Marty, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A fair-minded, comprehensive account based on new documents. Unlike their predecessors, Neely and McMurtry have placed Mary Lincoln's trial within the legal, social, and medical context of the times. So viewed, what happened to Mary Lincoln was governed as much by procedures and collective attitudes as by personal motivations."--Jean Baker, American Historical Review

"[This book] combines the discipline of historical writing with the forward march of a detective story. And it is painstakingly fair to both the pathetic Mary and the tortured Robert. Filled with confident insight and careful documentation, this book must already be considered as an essential addition to the Lincoln bookshelf." --Harold Holzer, ChicagoTribune

"One of the saddest stories in the Lincoln family saga unfolds in detail for the first time in The Insanity File--the1875 jury trial to declare Mary Todd Lincoln insane and the role played in it by Robert Todd Lincoln, her firstborn and only surviving son."--Herbert Mitgang, New YorkTimes BookReview

About the Author:

Mark E. Neely Jr. is the McCabe Greer Professor in the American Civil War Era at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties as well as The Union Divided: Party Conflict in the Civil War North, Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism, and The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln, coauthored with R. Gerald McMurtry and published by Southern Illinois University Press. Neely is also the coauthor with Harold Holzer of five books about the iconography of Lincoln and the Civil War. Harold Holzer is the senior vice president for external affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the country's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln, he is a cochair of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of twenty-five books, including Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President and The Lincoln Mailbag: America Writers to the President, both published by Southern Illinois University Press, and Lincoln at Cooper Union, which won a 2005 Lincoln Prize. His web site is haroldholzer.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0809318954
• ISBN 13: 9780809318957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224