chairerald holzer, vice of the lincoln forum. it s a pleasure to welcome you to panel discussions we will have on foundations of lincoln s leadership. ideas, but principally people who inspired and motivated him. it is a pleasure to welcome as rightnel from my left to the author of the political life of abraham lincoln, volume one, sidney blumenthal. richard burr kaiser, the life of abraham lincoln. author not only of the recently published american ulysses: the life of ulysses s grant, and the author of a. lincoln, ronald white. thank you to you all. [applause] our goal today is to hear from you and see if we can evoke differences of opinion. we will certainly welcome audience participation and questions from our usual microphone. i will give you a signal in about 20 minutes or so to encourage you to line up and engage with us. first person i want to talk to in relation to lincoln s inspiration are the three sets of parents. not one person, but three. the three sets of
i mean the woman he referred to as his angel mother, nancy lincoln, the woman who regarded in his fatherand his whose relationship with him remains something of a controversy even today. of the three, who was influential and who was a negative influence? why don t we start with sydney. microphone. negativesitive and the were about one experience, and that was an experience of being in the lincoln family growing up. him,tepmother protected crucially, from his father, which enabled his early education and that was the initial positive spark for lincoln. lincoln was a bright, inquisitive, naturally inquisitive child, but he was suppressed by his father. was ather himself suppressed man and that have enormous influence all the way through his life and deeply on his articulate thinking on slavery. had been a poor third farmer in kentucky. he had been cut out of the family inheritance. his stepbrother had taken it all and wound up being a quasi-aristocratic. he had terrible luck
leadership, ideas but principally people who inspired and motivated him. it s a pleasure to welcome as our panel from my left to right, the author of the political life of abraham lincoln, volume i, a self-made man, sidney blumenthal. and richard brook hihiser, and finally, the author not only of the recently published american ulysses, the life of ulysses s. grant but the author of a. lincoln and an expert in lincoln s writings, ronald a. white. welcome to you all. so our goal today is to hear from you and see if we can evoke some differences of opinion. we will certainly welcome audience participation and questions from our usual microphone. in fact, i will give you a signal in about 20 minutes or so to encourage you to line up and engage with us. the first person i want to talk to in relation to lincoln s inspiration are the three sets of parents, really, not one person but three, the three sets of parents in his life. you have all written about them. by the three, i mean
the life of abraham lincoln. and finally, the author not only of the recently published american ulysses: the life of ulysses s grant, and the author of a. lincoln, ronald white. welcome to you all. [applause] our goal today is to hear from you and see if we can evoke differences of opinion. we will certainly welcome audience participation and questions from our usual microphone. i will give you a signal in about 20 minutes or so to encourage you to line up and engage with us. the first person i want to talk to in relation to lincoln s inspiration are the three sets of parents. not one person, but three. the three sets of parents in his life. you have all written about them. by the three, the woman who he referred to has his angel mother, nancy lincoln. his stepmother, sarah bush johnston lincoln. and his father, his relationship with him remains something of a mystery or a controversy even today. of the three who was influential and who was a negative influence? why do