Since the appearance of Spielberg’s Lincoln I have been receiving a few requests for good books to read about the Emancipation Proclamation.  As many of you know, the Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863.

Here are my picks:

Allen Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America

John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation

Harold Holzer, Edna Medford, and Frank Williams, The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views 

Louis Masur, Lincoln’s Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union 

David Donald, Lincoln 

Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and Slavery 

Happy reading!