Summary of Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had intended to spend the first act of 1776, a musical about the Declaration of Independence, ignoring the stage and staring at Abraham Lincoln's box from my balcony seat. But I was sucked into the play, and I spent the second act in the Lincoln Museum basement. #2 The play gives the audience a sense of the anguish, embarrassment, and disappointment Adams and Jefferson felt when they yielded to the southerners’ demands. This country was formed for the white, not for the black man, John Wilkes Booth reportedly wrote on the day he shot Lincoln. #3 The contents of John Wilkes Booth’s pockets also get the glass case treatment. At Ford’s Theatre, I looked at the five photographs of women in his pockets when he died, and I couldn’t help but believe that I had picked up new insight into his character. #4 I love reading the Second Inaugural speech, which was delivered at the end of the war. It is full of sarcasm and writing, and it shows how Lincoln thought and governed.