As a new film about Abraham Lincoln prepares to hit theaters nationwide on November 16, we thought it appropriate to highlight two recent articles about the nation’s 16th president. First, writing in the Wall Street Journal, Allen Guelzo, professor of history and director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College, discusses Lincoln’s understanding of the Emancipation Proclamation, which the president termed “the central act … Read more »
Writing at The Daily Beast, Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton and author of the forthcoming book The Man Who Became Abraham Lincoln: How He Won the Civil War and Was Assassinated, describes the political aptitude of our nation’s 16th president, remarking that “lifting Lincoln above the fray doesn’t remove him from politics. While the political Lincoln may be difficult for us to acknowledge at a time when politics … Read more »
Yesterday, October 15, marked the anniversary of the seventh and final debate of the series between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in their campaign for one of Illinois’s two United States Senate in 1858.
The final debate was held in Alton, Illinois, before a crowd of about 5,000 people. In the debate, Douglas attacked Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech and his understanding of the Declaration of Independence. In response, Lincoln … Read more »
The Library of Congress is about to open up a major new exhibition, “The Civil War in America,” to commemorate the Civil War sesquicentennial. The exhibition, which will be on display from November 12, 2012, through June 1, 2013, at the Jefferson Building of the Library, will feature more than 200 unique items from the Library’s Civil War collection, including diaries, letters, drawings, maps, newspapers, and more.
In prepration for … Read more »
In the Fall 2012 issue of the Lapham’s Quarterly, Michael Phillips-Anderson, professor of communication at Monmouth University, examines the important role that humor plays in presidential elections, writing that “To be elected as a political leader in a democracy is to occupy three positions relative to the other citizens: they must be better than us, for they must lead us; they must be less than us because they err greatly … Read more »
Here is an interesting new fact about Abraham Lincoln that has recently been uncovered by the Irish historian Christine Kinealy: the nation’s sixteenth president was one of the 15,000 people worldwide to donate money to Ireland to aid the country during the Great Irish Famine. The famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1852, was in part caused by a potato blight, leading to approximately a million people dying from starvation. Another … Read more »
In the October 1 issue of The New Yorker, the magazine’s executive editor, Dorothy Wickenden, reviews a new biography about William Henry Seward by Walter Stahr: Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man.
Seward (1801–72), who helped to found the Whig Party in the 1830s, served as governor of New York (1839–42), United States Senator (1849–61), and as Secretary of State under both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (1861–69). A fierce abolitionist (he … Read more »
For the last several weeks, we have been commemorating each of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on the day in history on which they occurred. But there was a great national debate that took place almost ten years before the Lincoln-Douglas debates that is also worth studying, and doing so will help us to better understand the context and arguments in the debates of 1858.
Reviewing Fergus M. Bordewich’s recent book America’s Great Debate … Read more »
On September 15, 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas gathered before a crowd of roughly 1,500 people–mostly Democrats–in Jonesboro, Illinois, for their third debate in their campaign for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. Three days later, on September 18, the fourth debate occurred, this time in Charleston, IL, with nearly 12,000 people in attendance–many of whom had traveled from neighboring Indiana to attend.
At the Jonesboro debate, … Read more »
On August 21, 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas held their first debate as part of their campaign for one of Illinois’s two United States Senate seats. Between August 21 and October 15, the pair participated in seven debates; in each one, either Douglas or Lincoln would begin with an hour-long address, then the other would respond for an hour and a half, and the opener would have … Read more »
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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“What a wonderful collection of American songs, speeches, and stories. It should be valuable for teachers, students, parents, and readers of all kinds.”
— Diane Ravitch