I finished readling James L. Swanson's "Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer" last night and I wholeheartedly suggest that anyone with any interest in the Civil War era pick it up. The book is an in-depth and compelling account of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth that ended at Garrett's farm.

The book describes Booth's preparations in the hours leading up to the assassination, along with the failed attempts by his co-conspirators to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.

A couple of things about the book really stood out.

First, was the complete unconcern many important public figures -- Abraham Lincoln most notably -- had for their personal safety during a time of war. It's inconceivable nowadays that any head of state could behave as Lincoln did. I was reminded of President Theodore Roosevelt's practice of allowing the general public into the White House on New Year's Day to shake his hand -- hundreds would gather. Just 40-some years earlier, it wasn't uncommon for someone who wanted a word with the president to go to the White House, be told to wait an hour or two, and then be ushered into the Oval Office to have a brief word with President Lincoln. The entire idea of a political assassination was so foreign to many people in that day and age.

Second, I was surprised by the commercialization that surrounded Lincoln's death. The rush to buy the last copy of George magazine the day after the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. is amateur hour compared to the entrepreneurial spirit that reigned in the 1860s.

Swanson's book is a quick read, but you get your money's worth -- check it out.