One path—refusing to reinstate repatriation—would establish him as a strong but parochially minded executive, focussed on Virginia’s regional politics.

Sure, it’s an evangelical “Remember the Titans,” but at least the Erwin brothers have made an effort, parochially speaking, to go outside the lines. -------------------------- “

The encounters, he writes in the book, helped push Lincoln past a “parochially Christian” understanding of American identity.