A 2001 Biography Documentary directed by David Grubin, narrated by David McCullough.
More has been written about Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln than any other Americans, and yet, A House Divided is the first dual biography. The film follows the coup…
A 2001 Biography Documentary directed by David Grubin, narrated by David McCullough.
More has been written about Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln than any other Americans, and yet, A House Divided is the first dual biography. The film follows the couple from their strikingly different childhoods in the South to their years in the White House. It uncovers their public ambitions and their private fears. It paints a vivid picture of a complicated marriage, of a couple who loved each other passionately, quarreled intensely, and who were frequently forced to mourn. And it describes the impact of Lincoln's brutal assassination on the nation and the sanity of his wife.
As the first dual biography, A House Divided does much more than explore the personal story of one of the most intriguing couples to have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it also reflects on the time of the Lincolns' lives and the parallels with a nation at war. Elected to the Oval Office only to see the nation split in two, Lincoln led a confused and frightened people through the most terrible conflict in their history. At the same time, his own household mirrored the fissures that tore the nation apart and divided families from Maine to Mississippi. The great emancipator was married to the daughter of a slave owner from Kentucky, a woman who was frequently accused of being a Confederate sympathizer and whose brother lost his life fighting Lincoln's armies.
To help tell this story, Grubin has pulled together an impressive cast of leading scholars and cultural commentators. They include Doris Kearns Goodwin, Linda Levitt Turner, Charles B. Strozier, Mary Genevieve Murphy, Jean Harvey Baker, David Herbert Donald, Douglas L. Wilson, Judge Frank J. Williams, Mark E. Neely Jr., Donald Miller, Margaret Washington, and David E. Long.
Episode 1: This episode tells the story of the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's childhoods - his in a remote backwoods log cabin, hers in a wealthy Kentucky home - and describes their courtship.
Mary sets her heart on the raw, socially awkward Lincoln, saying later: "He'll be President of the United States one day. If I had not thought so I never would have married him."
Episode 2: https://www.bitchute.com/video/5aWrHUQ4njyh/
