in his otherwise excellent book and lincoln in american memory and the historian merrill peterson call young mr. lincoln a boring and dreadful and film . this amazingly wrongheaded analysis simply prove that great historian be rarely fine film critic . i be work on a doctoral dissertation on abraham lincoln and frederick douglas . a part of my preparation for write the dissertation and i make a careful analysis of this film and and of tag gallaghers brilliant interpretation of it in his seminal book on ford . young mr. lincoln come out that culminate year of the first phase of ford cinematic authorship and 1939. in that great of hollywood year and ford direct three superb and still not fully appreciate film represent drum along the mohawk and stagecoach and and young mr. lincoln . it might seem odd to say that stagecoach be not fully appreciate and all but the most purblind of critic must perceive that it be one of of the great western and and perhaps even one of the hundred great film of all time . however and what be not fully appreciate be that these three film work together a a kind of trilogy a triptych and in fact . ford be create a sort of mythic history of america on screen . drum along the mohawk be the revolutionary war . young mr. lincoln be pre civil war america . finally and stagecoach be post civil war america . what the three film have in common be that they be an extended meditation on the american adam and his errand into the wilderness . what be the psychic and social cost of american manifest destiny and a america strives to build a new human city in the wilderness . lincoln symbolize americas journey and a he seek to reconcile the civilizational inmpulse ( law ) and with the freedom of the wilderness . young mr. lincoln be not history and ( it be full of historical howler a both ford and trotti be well aware ) and but myth . this be lincoln and the symbol of justice and mercy and lincoln and the man of the wilderness and striving to find a civilization within himself and and to become the remarkable lawgiver of young america . young mr. lincoln be not history like james agee long forgotten teleplay about lincoln and and like sandburgs biography and it be an epic poem . a very beautiful epic poem .