Lincoln Through the Eyes of History: Harold Holzer on Francis Carpenter

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Lincoln Through the Eyes of History: Harold Holzer on Francis Carpenter SG:  When we first discussed your participation in this series of articles about Lincoln biographers, you asked if I thought that Francis Carpenter should be included.  Obviously, Carpenter does not “fit into” the list of biographers who have used research techniques in order to […]

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Book Review: Lincoln in Private by Ron White

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Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President   By Ronald C. White, 2021 Book Reviewed by: E. Phelps Gay In this short, highly readable volume, Ronald C. White examines “fragments” left behind by our 16th President, who made a lifelong habit of writing notes to himself. These thoughts and […]

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SANDRIDGE: Lincoln’s Home Away from Home during the New Salem Years

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SANDRIDGE: Lincoln’s Home Away from Home during the New Salem Years By Guy Fraker The seminal role of New Salem in Abraham Lincoln’s maturation and development is well known.  The concurrent influence of the nearby Sandridge area and its people during these formative years is not as well known.   Sandridge encompasses approximately 10 square […]

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The “Great Emancipator” and the “Grim Chieftan”

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The “Great Emancipator” and the “Grim Chieftain”  Jason H. Silverman Abraham Lincoln was in trouble – and the fate of the United States tenuously hung in the balance.  The firing on Fort Sumter, five weeks after Lincoln took office, ominously signaled the start of civil war. This act, the President proclaimed, “forced upon the country […]

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Memories: An Interview with Harold Holzer

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Memories: An Interview with Harold Holzer Sara Gabbard: Recent questions about the fate of various Civil War memorials raise several obvious questions.  Is there a profound difference between possible sites for statues; e.g. public vs. private property? Harold Holzer: To me, yes, there is a difference: private sites can display what their owners want to […]

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An Interview with Richard Etulain

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An Interview with Richard Etulain regarding his new book Abraham Lincoln: A Western Legacy Sara Gabbard: Please explain the series on South Dakota history which this book represents: Richard Etulain:  This book is part of the South Dakota Biography Series published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press.  In 1997, the ambitious and diligent editor, […]

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Book Review: “Abraham Lincoln: Philosopher President”

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Joseph R. Fornieri, (Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 2014).   In the preface to Abraham Lincoln: Philosopher President, Joseph Fornieri recounts President Lincoln’s response to a group of serenaders after his 1864 reelection.  Recalling the events of the bitter, divisive campaign, the president reflected that human nature did not change. “In any future great national […]

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Lincoln and Democracy

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Lincoln and Democracy By Allen C. Guelzo The word democracy occurs only 137 times in the collected writings of Abraham Lincoln. But no other word described what he saw as the most natural, the most just, and the most progressive form of human government in existence. Nothing, he said, could be “as clearly true as […]

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The Hedgehog and the Fox:  Lincoln’s Lyceum Speech for the Ages

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The Hedgehog and the Fox:  Lincoln’s Lyceum Speech for the Ages By Jason H. Silverman The Sangamo Journal, on Saturday, January 27, 1838, advertised a lecture for that evening by the local lawyer “A. Lincoln, Esq.” Lincoln was little more than two weeks shy of his twenty-ninth birthday. He was single, sharing living quarters with […]

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