American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman This is a fabulous book for those who love American history. I was watching a symposium of the Lincoln Assassination on CSPAN a few weeks ago that was so good, that I taped 6 hours of it. One of the authors was Kauffman and I just had to buy his book. I wasn't disappointed. The greatest books for history nuts like me, are the ones that contain new understandings of familiar events. They're very rare, but Kauffman has pulled it off. Among the things that I didn't know until reading his book: - Booth did NOT break his leg when he leaped to the stage. He landed solidly in a crouch, staggered as he stood up straight, (probably light-headed from the adrenalin) held the dagger aloft as he pronounced "sic semper tyrannis", then walked quickly off the stage, slashing at all as he went. He broke his leg later when his horse fell on him in his mad dash out of Washington. - Lewis Powell was almost certainly SENT to help Booth by the Confederate spy service in Montreal. Kauffman paints a very sympathetic portrait of the 20 year-old Powell, as a brave and intelligent young soldier who was following orders and who later was ashamed of his part in the Plot. The author was a pallbearer at Powell's funeral in 1994... - There were probably more than 30 people involved in the conspiracy, although we know the names of fewer than 20... - There is no evidence that Booth ever intended to kidnap Mr. Lincoln. The kidnap plot seems to have been a ruse to shield the actor from curious detectives both North and South. It wasn't until the very end that Booth showed his hand; at which point most of the conspirators fled, including the other "leader" of the plot: John Surratt... - Wilkes Booth was a great actor, who regarded the acting profession as a silly way to make a living and aspired to do something real... There's a lot more, but its all just as good. I recommend this book for serious history nuts (I know there are several of you here) and for those who enjoy reading the annotations to learn fine details... ............TP