3 out of 4 stars
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Lincoln's Hat and the TEA Movement's Anger by David Selcer tells the tale of a young journalist, Harlan Pomeroy, who is on a mission to publish his work discrediting the President and showing his true socialistic values. When he attempts an assassination attempt with his gang he is left frustrated when it turns out to be unsuccessful. He then discovers that the hat, which was shot off the President's head, contains letters from Karl Marx. This must be a sure-fire way for him to bring the people round to his point of view that the President is letting foreign workers into the States and trying to use them to initiate a class war – bringing the working-class rights and dampening down the 'rich'.
Harlan gets swept up with his ideals and finds himself in a much more dangerous position than he could have possibly imagined. As the President fights a war to end slavery, Harlan fights his own war to bring an end, one way or another, to the President's life in office. As the story progresses you realise it is about much more than the life of one President and his enemy. The book takes you on a journey through history, racism, socialism in America, and basic human rights.
Weaving fiction through historical facts Selcer leads you along Harlan's journey and character development. Harlan comes from a background in the East where he had a black lover, Sally, and through her a child. He is torn between his roots and his wings as he tries to make a life for himself as a respected journalist. Will Harlan forget his roots altogether to get where he desires?
Lincoln's Hat is very well written and clearly demonstrates Selcer's passion for American history. It was, at times, quite hard to fully grasp what was happening. Selcer uses names and describes times in history as if it is a given that you would understand what they are. This I found slightly confusing as I do not have a broad knowledge of American history. The grammar used was educational, and I found myself looking up, and learning, several new words from the story which is something I enjoy from a book. The story itself was also educational, although I had to remind myself that it was not all factual as Selcer's in-depth knowledge in this era of history shines through prominently in the book.
My favourite aspect of the book was how multidimensional it was. At first appearing to be a book about a young journalist taking a stand against the President it became so much more. It tackles strong issues such as class discrimination and racism. Racism was the most important and harrowing concept developed in the book for me and made me look back in history with horror at what the world used to, and still can be, like.
The character of Harlan was also developed well and it was interesting to watch his struggle with his past and his future. This was developed for the reader using his old black lover Sally and his new white conquest Comfort to demonstrate the differences in his life.
Overall, I would give Lincoln's Hat and the TEA Movement's Anger 3 out of 4 stars. I feel like you need to have a fairly in-depth knowledge of this period of American history to fully enjoy this book, and as I did not this began to frustrate me at times. It also had several grammatical errors. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in Lincoln's time in American history and all the other political and social issues that revolved around then as well. Do not be disheartened if you do not have a strong understanding of history, I did not and I still enjoyed the read.
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Lincoln's Hat and the TEA Movement's Anger
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