Many events have been cancelled or postponed due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19.
Please check with events or venues to make sure that scheduled events are still, in fact, happening. Conversations with Erin Mast Join Dr. Christian McWhirter, ALPLM Lincoln Historian, as he interviews the ALPLF new President and CEO, Erin Carlson Mast. Erin started her new position on January 11 and brings with her a diverse background in history and nonprofit management. Mast brings to the ALPLF a distinguished track record in leading successful capital projects, research and exhibits, public programming, and partnerships focusing on the history and legacies of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. She brings a breadth and depth of experience in increasing and sustaining a high level of philanthropy and partnerships and in campaign management. Mast was the CEO and Executive Director of President Lincoln’s Cottage, She spearheaded the process under which the Nat
H.W. Brands Jr., a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist whose latest book focuses on John Brown and Abraham Lincoln, will be among the presenters at the Benjamin P. Thomas Symposium marking the 212th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12-13.
The symposium, which is put on by the Abraham Lincoln Association, will be held remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The opening of the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield will kick off the symposium at 10 a.m. on Feb. 12.
Rich Lowry, editor of The National Review and author of a book on Lincoln, will be the keynote speaker.
The forgotten Civil War links of two of our favourite Christmas songs
By The Washington Post
Christian McWhirter
Washington - Even a socially-distanced holiday cannot silence the omnipresent Christmas songs that form the season s soundtrack. As part of our collective subconscious, these tunes may even serve to distract us from this year s tragic hardships. But, two of our most playful holiday songs - Jingle Bells and Up on the Housetop - are products of an even more profound US crisis, the Civil War.
While the songs themselves carry little of that era s fraught politics, their authors were deeply embedded in the causes of both sides and used their songwriting talents to try to shape the conflict raging around them. In that way, they show the potential power of songs not just to spark our emotions, but also to shape our ideas.