Flood does most research for Lincoln book at EKU

Fellow Kentuckian and Civil War author Kent Masterson Brown said Flood's work makes Lincoln "walk off the pages as in no other book. This is writing at its absolute best about a subject that is as gripping and absorbing as any in the annals of American history."

Author Thomas Fleming called "1864" the "best book about Lincoln that I have read in a long time. Even though we know how it will end, (Flood's) masterful narrative often leaves you breathless."

Flood emphasized two qualities about Lincoln sometimes overlooked - his ability to connect with people, and a vision that extended well beyond the war at hand.

"The word got out there that a real person lived in the White House, a man who could laugh or cry with you, whoever you were, and do all he could for you," Flood said. "He stiffened the spine of the people of the Union, in the Union's most critical and uncertain hour."

Despite a war that threatened to rip the young nation asunder, Lincoln "never lost sight of his vision for the future. In the middle of the bloodiest American war to date, he still got through legislation that pushed the railroads and telegraph lines deep into the West. His other landmark legislation led to the creation of our public state university systems, gave free land to farmers willing to work the land, and brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants here to help settle the west.

"I see him as this homespun genius," Flood said, "sent to save the United States in its convulsive hour."

Flood, who received an honorary doctor of letters degree from EKU in 1982, will be honored at a reception in Crabbe Library the evening of Wednesday, March 25, part of a larger Lincoln Bicentennial celebration. More details will be announced at a later date.