History as Portrayed in Art: An Interview with Harold Holzer
by Harold Holzer, Sara GabbardHistory as Portrayed in Art: An Interview with Harold Holzer Sara Gabbard Sara Gabbard: Please explain the circumstances under which you and your co-authors (Gabor Boritt and Mark Neely, Jr.) undertook this enormous project. Harold Holzer: Back in 1982—it’s hard to believe it was 40 years ago!—the three of us began discussing Lincoln engravings and […]
Read More
Mystery Solved: Why the Harper’s Weekly Close-Up of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Credited A Photo By Alexander Gardner
by Harold HolzerMystery Solved: Why the Harper’s Weekly Close-Up of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Credited A Photo By Alexander Gardner Harold Holzer Students of mid-nineteenth-century image-making know that engravers and lithographers of that period—along with painters and sculptors—had become increasingly dependent on the medium of photography to provide source material for portraits. One of the great beneficiaries of […]
Read More
Lincoln Through the Eyes of History: Harold Holzer on Francis Carpenter
by Harold HolzerLincoln 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 […]
Read More
Memories: An Interview with Harold Holzer
by Harold Holzer, Sara GabbardMemories: 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 […]
Read More
An Interview with Harold Holzer, Author of Lincoln: President-Elect
by Harold HolzerAn Interview with Harold Holzer, Author of Lincoln: President-Elect Sara Gabbard: As we face a new presidency in the United States, it seems an appropriate time to discuss your 2009 book, which focuses on the time between Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and his inauguration on March 4, 1861. First of all, did he […]
Read More
History Through A Poet’s Eyes
by Harold HolzerHISTORY THROUGH A POET’S EYES Carl Sandburg’s books on Abraham Lincoln, far from traditional biography, remain unmatched for their vivid combination of mood, incident, and epochal sweep By HAROLD HOLZER The “elusive Lincoln is a challenge for any artist.” So the poet, troubadour, journalist, and political activist Carl Sandburg declared (in combination warning and boast) […]
Read More
An Interview with Harold Holzer Regarding His New Book The Presidents vs. the Press
by Harold Holzer, Sara GabbardSara Gabbard: When in relationship to the timing of writing your marvelous Lincoln and the Power of the Press did you decide to write a book which would explore “the Endless Battle between the White House and the Media from the Founding Fathers to Fake News? Harold Holzer: The idea first struck me during the […]
Read More
Books: An Interview with Harold Holzer
by Harold HolzerSara Gabbard: Some of our readers already know, but for those who don’t: Why did Lincoln become your lifelong focus? Harold Holzer: The “why” is harder to isolate than the “how.” It began for me in a fifth grade classroom in a rural neighborhood of New York City (yes, there was such a thing in […]
Read More
An Interview with Harold Holzer on “Monument Man”
by Harold Holzer, Sara GabbardAn Interview with Harold Holzer regarding his new book, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French [“As one of the foremost living authorities on Abraham Lincoln, Harold Holzer has long straddled the crossroads of history and art with his own inimitable brand of scholarship. Not surprisingly, in this grandly illustrated and beautifully written […]
Read More
The Debate over the Debates: Debating Those Debates: The Historians Weigh In
by Douglas L. Wilson, Edna Greene, Frank J. Williams, Harold HolzerModerated by Harold Holzer A public sensation in the seven Illinois towns that hosted them—reprinted in the press at the time, in book form shortly thereafter, and in many editions since—the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates are remembered today, 160 years after they took place, as a political and cultural phenomenon. But as much as they attracted […]
Read More
The Debate Over the Debates: How Lincoln and Douglas Wages a Campaign For History
by Harold HolzerBy Harold Holzer As most readers of 19th-century history know, the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates sparked an explosion of public interest in Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and the sport of political debating itself. The encounters not only riveted the tens of thousands of eyewitnesses who packed Illinois town squares and fairgrounds to hear them, but […]
Read More
Interview with Harold Holzer on the 160th Anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
by Harold HolzerSara Gabbard: In 1858, was there already a precedent for debates between competing candidates for political office? Harold Holzer: Not much of one, really. Certainly the 1830 Webster-Hayne debates over the tariff had long been famous nationwide, but these took place on the floor of the U. S. Senate in Washington, between two public officials, […]
Read More
A Seldom Seen “Emancipator”
by Harold HolzerFew artists did more to cement the reigning nineteenth-century image of Abraham Lincoln as “Great Emancipator” than Francis B. Carpenter, whose monumental canvas, The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet, won critical acclaim on national tour beginning in 1864 and inspired an 1866 engraving that remained a best seller for decades.
Read More