Overview

Full Product Details

9781416586067

Table of Contents

Reviews

Premonition looms in every chapter, even in each epigraph, as the course of the war turns in favor of the North and the mind of John Wilkes Booth grows more warped. The narrative races ahead to the fraternal clash because Ms. Titone's control is wire-tight; and the end, which we know anyway, is crushing. -- James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Papers at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library . ..a very well done examination of the trials and tribulations of a remarkable family. -- Booklist The new light [Titone] shines on the Booth family provides some compelling context for the Lincoln assassination. -- The Dallas Morning News Provocative and revealing, Titone's first book provides another dimension to an iconic national calamity by alleging that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in part to establish his own importance within a family of theatrical rivals... Titone's theory adds to the narrative without dismissing the political and cultural reasons for Wilkes Booth's plot--his Confederate and proslavery sympathies have often been noted. She is most impressive in her use of primary sources and in her literary style. -- Library Journal Filled with ambition, rivalry, betrayal, and tragedy, this story of the celebrated Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and the two sons, Edwin and John Wilkes, who competed to wear his crown, is as gripping as a fine work of fiction. Yet, given the role that the younger son played in murdering President Abraham Lincoln, My Thoughts Be Bloody is simultaneously an important work of history--the best account I have ever read of the complex forces that led John Wilkes Booth to carry a gun into Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. --Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals Titone uncovers a narrative as old as Cain and Abel. She also casts the nineteenth century's greatest True Crime story in a new light. -- New England Quarterly Review The Booth family, like most involved with creative endeavors, produced brilliant eccentrics. What began as sibling rivalry transformed into something darker and deadly as national divisions became mirrored in family squabbles. How ironic that the greatest family of the American theatre produced the assassin of the greatest President who supported American theatre. For anyone wanting to know how this could happen, My Thoughts Be Bloody is the book to read. --Tom Schwartz, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Nora Titone's energetic narrative persuades a reader that history must add to its indictment of Booth the crime of fratricide. --Thomas Mallon, author of Henry and Clara Titone's riveting book - written with the authority of a historian and the twists and turns of a novelist - leads us to see Lincoln's killing, for the first time, through the crucible of bitter sibling rivalry...A great read. -- Philadelphia Inquirer Why did John Wilkes Booth do it? In My Thoughts Be Bloody young historian Nora Titone is one of the few to have genuinely explored this question. In doing so, she has crafted a fascinating psychological drama about one of the central events of the Civil War: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This book promises to stimulate lively historical debate, and will be a treat for every Civil War buff who always pondered that haunting question, what made him pull that trigger? Bravo on a marvelous achievement. -- Jay Winik, author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval This is narrative history at its most engaging and edifying: the forgotten story of a sibling rivalry, shot through with Shakespearean overtones, that played itself out tragically on the national stage. With the authority of a historian, and the dramatic talents of a novelist, Nora Titone has written a book full of surprises that will fundamentally change the way Americans think about John Wilkes Booth. --Toby Lester, author of The Fourth Part of the World The Booth family, like most involved with creative endeavors, produced brilliant eccentrics. What began as sibling rivalry transformed into something darker and deadly as national divisions became mirrored in family squabbles. How ironic that the greatest family of the American theatre produced the assassin of the greatest President who supported American theatre. For anyone wanting to know how this could happen, My Thoughts Be Bloody is the book to read. --Tom Schwartz, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Filled with ambition, rivalry, betrayal, and tragedy, this story of the celebrated Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and the two sons, Edwin and John Wilkes, who competed to wear his crown, is as gripping as a fine work of fiction. Yet, given the role that the younger son played in murdering President Abraham Lincoln, My Thoughts Be Bloody is simultaneously an important work of history--the best account I have ever read of the complex forces that led John Wilkes Booth to carry a gun into Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. --Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals Titone uncovers a narrative as old as Cain and Abel. She also casts the nineteenth century's greatest True Crime story in a new light. -- New England Quarterly Review Provocative and revealing, Titone's first book provides another dimension to an iconic national calamity by alleging that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in part to establish his own importance within a family of theatrical rivals... Titone's theory adds to the narrative without dismissing the political and cultural reasons for Wilkes Booth's plot--his Confederate and proslavery sympathies have often been noted. She is most impressive in her use of primary sources and in her literary style. -- Library Journal . ..a very well done examination of the trials and tribulations of a remarkable family. -- Booklist Premonition looms in every chapter, even in each epigraph, as the course of the war turns in favor of the North and the mind of John Wilkes Booth grows more warped. The narrative races ahead to the fraternal clash because Ms. Titone's control is wire-tight; and the end, which we know anyway, is crushing. -- James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Papers at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library The new light [Titone] shines on the Booth family provides some compelling context for the Lincoln assassination. -- The Dallas Morning News Nora Titone's energetic narrative persuades a reader that history must add to its indictment of Booth the crime of fratricide. --Thomas Mallon, author of Henry and Clara The Booth family, like most involved with creative endeavors, produced brilliant eccentrics. What began as sibling rivalry transformed into something darker and deadly as national divisions became mirrored in family squabbles. How ironic that the greatest family of the American theatre produced the assassin of the greatest President who supported American theatre. For anyone wanting to know how this could happen, My Thoughts Be Bloody is the book to read. --Tom Schwartz, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Titone's riveting book - written with the authority of a historian and the twists and turns of a novelist - leads us to see Lincoln's killing, for the first time, through the crucible of bitter sibling rivalry...A great read. -- Philadelphia Inquirer Why did John Wilkes Booth do it? In My Thoughts Be Bloody young historian Nora Titone is one of the few to have genuinely explored this question. In doing so, she has crafted a fascinating psychological drama about one of the central events of the Civil War: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This book promises to stimulate lively historical debate, and will be a treat for every Civil War buff who always pondered that haunting question, what made him pull that trigger? Bravo on a marvelous achievement. -- Jay Winik, author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval The Booth family, like most involved with creative endeavors, produced brilliant eccentrics. What began as sibling rivalry transformed into something darker and deadly as national divisions became mirrored in family squabbles. How ironic that the greatest family of the American theatre produced the assassin of the greatest President who supported American theatre. For anyone wanting to know how this could happen, My Thoughts Be Bloody is the book to read. --Tom Schwartz, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum This is narrative history at its most engaging and edifying: the forgotten story of a sibling rivalry, shot through with Shakespearean overtones, that played itself out tragically on the national stage. With the authority of a historian, and the dramatic talents of a novelist, Nora Titone has written a book full of surprises that will fundamentally change the way Americans think about John Wilkes Booth. --Toby Lester, author of The Fourth Part of the World

Titone's riveting book - written with the authority of a historian and the twists and turns of a novelist - leads us to see Lincoln's killing, for the first time, through the crucible of bitter sibling rivalry...A great read. -- Philadelphia Inquirer <p><p>

The new light [Titone] shines on the Booth family provides some compelling context for the Lincoln assassination. -- The Dallas Morning News

Author Information

Nora Titone studied American History and Literature as an undergraduate at Harvard University, and earned an M.A. in History at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked as a historical researcher for a range of academics, writers and artists involved in projects about nineteenth-century America. She lives in Chicago and this is her first book. Doris Kearns Goodwin's work for President Johnson inspired her career as a presidential historian. Her first book was Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Her bestselling Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced. Her most recent book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, provides a front-row seat to the pivotal people--JFK, LBJ, RFK, and MLK--and events of this momentous decade.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available