"The Better Angels of Our Nature": Lincoln, Propaganda, and Public Opinion in the North During the Civil War

The chapter discusses the efforts of Northerners to shape public opinion during the Civil War era by explaining the value of talking about propaganda in the Civil War era, definining the term and place that definition within the context of American society, showing how Northern opinion makers propagandized during the war, and discussing Abraham Lincoln, who deserves much more than any recent American leader the term “The Great Communicator.” Paludan argues that Lincoln was self-consciously a propagandist and that, although his activities in that realm occasionally revealed a dark side, he ultimately provided propaganda that shaped an American society that was far better able to achieve its goals than it had been.