But why should I be interested in why your country freed slaves when my country never had slaves? Why should I be interested in WHAT your exceptional speaker and writer had to say when it was about America?
Is your country interested in Kate Sheppard? Is your country interested in the fact that while you were a huge democracy, MY country was the first in the world to give women the vote?
Savage is most notable for being the first Labour party Prime Minister and the father of Social Welfare in NZ. Yes I can hear you snoring! Abe has the same affect on me.
EVERYWHERE has someone far more important then Abe…except for America…and that is the way it should be.
New Zealand was the first COUNTRY to give women the vote. There is no reason for you to know that and less reason for you to care…much like anything about Abe for non-USA Dopers.
Just to stick up for Paul in Saudi a little bit – “Lincoln? Never heard of him.” is a far better response than “Wasn’t he the president who warned the United States about the Jews”? I mean, come on. The first may be chalked up to a reasonable conclusion of non-notoriety. The latter is what? Some weird, twisted stuff.
I’m with Paul in Saudi. The OP did not demand that all foreigners learn everything possible about the 16th U.S. President, or imply that they should; it simply asked what they do know.
I’m very interested in Lincoln and the American Civil War, and have read widely, written on and even given speeches (to Civil War roundtables and historical societies) about both. The posts so far show a greater breadth of knowledge about Lincoln than most Americans would have about other countries’ noted statesmen (with the possible exception of Winston Churchill - shall we test that with another thread?).
In the noble cause of fighting ignorance, however, may I clarify:
Duffer, the Gettysburg Address wasn’t written on an envelope or dashed off by Lincoln on the spur of the moment. He worked hard on his speeches, and on that one as much (if not more than) most. Garry Wills’s Lincoln at Gettysburg is a great, Pulitzer-winning book on the subject, if you’re interested.
Sierra Indigo, Lincoln’s head wound was fatal in and of itself; even modern medicine probably couldn’t have saved him. I think you may be thinking of President James A. Garfield, who probably wouldn’t have died after being shot in 1881 had his doctors been more competent.
Jjimm, the Lincolns were attending a play, “Our American Cousin,” and not an opera at Ford’s Theater.
Kingpengvin, the “better angels of our nature” quotation is from Lincoln’s First Inaugural, in 1861.