We are now in our third week in this course, and my what ground we have covered thus far. We have more to cover today, because we are coming up to the 1850s now. We are talking about the crises of the 1850s that really begin with the compromise of 1850 that moved into the kansasnebraska act of 1854, and we are going to see still more earthquakes occurring. But as we do this, we have a character that we have to meet who is going to play a central role in this entire course, and that is Abraham Lincoln. Now we touched very briefly in our last session by way of introduction of lincoln, and just to go through some of the details once again Abraham Lincoln is born in 1809, born the 12th of february. His parents are thomas and nancy hanks lincoln, and lincoln himself was born in hodgenville, kentucky, in a log cabin, yes, quite literally. He doesnt stay in kentucky. In 1818, his parents uproot from kentucky and move northwards across the ohio river into southern indiana. That is where lincol
It was something that would restrict their agency. They had control of communications, they had control of the theology. What then i can imagine would have headed off the war. There is a very great difference between Abraham Lincoln and steven douglas. Well i think it is building up through the 1850s and we can talk about john brownes raid who inspired hysteria throughout the south. They were afraid of slave insurrectio insurrections. They never appeared, but they were afraid of it and i think rightly so. And i think that white racial anxiety was also tied to the fact that their economy was based on slave labor. And there was more wealthy people in the south than in any other. You saw the wealth chart up there. They are talking about haiti a lot. And the specter of a real race war is real and they saw john brown as indicative of much of what the white north wanted. They con flated people in support of john brown, and that did scare them. There was a series of unexplained fired in 1860
Individually and as a team, they are interpreters of the civil war era who combine military history and social and cultural history and bring to their scholarship and their engagement with readers and audiences great knowledge, great sophistication and great style. As your biographical pacts enumerate, they have individually and together enriched and enlived the literature over the years. Gary gallagher is the john now the third Professor Emeritus in the professor of civil war at the university of virginia and youre all familiar, i know with his major works, the confederate war, the union war, lee and his generals in war and memory. Hes also like me and many others in this room, an oh fish gnaw doe, but more an expert on civil war themed films but his passion has inspired a terrific 2008 book causes won lost and forgotten. How hollywood and popular art shape what we know about the civil war. Hes the coed or the of with liz who just published new perspectives on the union war. Joan waug
Well, we want to look today as what, if anything, he meant by that, how sincere he was or how well he understood his own commitment to and concept of friendship. And i have a group of very accomplished friends to explore that topic with me. Chuck strosier, who has spoken at the Lincoln Forum who brings his experience as a psychoanalyst, psychobiographer, a onetime resident of springfield. By which i mean he knows about lincolns springfield. Not that one must be a psychoanalyst to live in springfield, although we dont know. And of course as an authority which is the subject of his latest book on the complex relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his only really close friend, joshua speed. Well hear more about that in the panel. Edna green medford, a member of the forum and has written and lectured here on the subject of lincoln, emancipation, race, equality and africanamerican life and lives. We welcome her perspective as well. Another expert on lincolns illinois years is another foru
Lincoln quote. Because on todays topic as with most subjects, Abraham Lincoln expressed himself better than almost anyone. And as he said in 1849, the better part of ones life consists of his friendships. Well, we want to look today as what, if anything, he meant by that, how sincere he was or how well he understood his own commitment to and concept of friendship. And i have a group of very accomplished friends to explore that topic with me. Chuck strosier, who has spoken at the Lincoln Forum who brings his experience as a psychoanalyst, psychobiographer, a onetime resident of springfield. By which i mean he knows about springfield. And of course as an authority which is the subject of his latest book on the complex relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his only really close friend joshua speed. Well hear more about that in the panel. Ed edna green, who has written and lectured here on the subject of lincoln, emancipation, race, equality and africanamerican life and lives. We welcom