As Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln continues to win accolades and Oscar nominations from movie critics, we bring you another review of the film—though instead of focusing on the specifics of Spielberg’s filming or Daniel Day Lewis’s performance, our critics are much more interested in Abraham Lincoln himself. In December, WSPWH editor Leon R. Kass joined AEI scholar and professor emeritus at Georgetown University Walter Berns to discuss Lincoln. Berns, who has long studied the nation’s sixteenth president, noted in his 2009 Bradley Lecture that “We say that a man can be known by the company he keeps. So I say that a nation, a people, can be known and be judged by its heroes, by whom it honors above all others. We pay ourselves the greatest compliment when we say that Abraham Lincoln is that man for us.”
Watch the entire conversation at our Youtube channel.
Related: Leon R. Kass, “Abraham Lincoln’s Re-founding of the Nation.”
Click here to sign up for our newsletter.Distinguished scholar-teachers Amy and Leon Kass demonstrate how short stories, speeches, and songs can be used to enhance civic education and how a pedagogical approach that stresses learning through inquiry can make primary sources come alive for students of all ages.
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