Abraham Lincoln has never exactly gone out of fashion. More books have been written about him than any other American president. But even so, he has recently dominated our thoughts, our public discourse, in a way that we haven’t seen in some time. And that’s because he started something in American history that ended with the inauguration of Barack Obama last week.
To mark the occasion, I wanted to highlight an excellent series of podcasts that focuses on Lincoln and the Civil War. Created by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, this series features talks by some of America’s leading scholars of the Civil War period, and at least two Pulitzer Prize winners. Among the lectures, you’ll find the following:
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (iTunesU) – Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (iTunesU) – James McPherson
- No Party Now: Politics in The Civil War North (iTunesU) – Adam I.P. Smith
- Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (iTunesU) – Allen Guelzo
- Abraham Lincoln: A Biographer’s Notes (iTunesU) – Richard Carwardine
- Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (iTunesU) – David Blight
For those of you who don’t want to work with iTunes, you can access these presentations and more at the Gilder Lehrman website here. You can also find here a page entirely dedicated Abraham Lincoln and related content.
P.S. Yet more proof that Lincoln is now everywhere. New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik has just released a new book, Angels and Ages, which examines the unique stamp that Darwin and Lincoln placed on our modern times. (Both men, by the way, were born on the same day 200 years ago next month.) You can listen here to an interview with Gopnik that was recorded yesterday.
Another great book is Father Abraham by Richard Striner. It is a great read and brilliant in uncovering Lincoln’s gifts, integrity and deep-seated, life-threatening commitment to end slavery. This book is VERY underrated and needs to be more in the spotlight.