allen guelzo: welcome once again to civil war era studies 205, introduction to the american civil war era. we are now in our third week in this course, and my, what ground we have covered thus far. we have more to cover because we are coming up to the 1850 s now. we are talking about the crises of the 1850 s that really begin with the compromise of 1850 that move into the kansas-nebraska 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 were thomas and nancy hanks lincoln, and lincoln himself is born in hodginville, kentucky in a log cabin, yes, quite literally. he doesn t stay in kentucky because in 1
it is a pleasure to welcome on our panel from my left to right the politicalf life of abraham lincoln: volume one, a self-made man, sidney blumenthal. and richard burr kaiser, the author of founder son: a life of abraham lincoln. author, not the only of the recently published american ulysses, a life of ulysses s grant, but a biographer of abraham lincoln, an author of a lincoln and expert of lincoln s writings, harold wright. welcome to you all. [applause] youur goal is to hear from and to see if we can evoke differences of opinion. the evil certainly welcome audience the well certainly we will certainly welcome audience for dissipation. i will give you a single 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. the three sets of parents in his life. you have all written about them. by the three amine the woman he referred to as his angel mother, nancy lincoln. the woman regarded him as
brookhiser. he was the historical consultant to the huge hamilton exhibition at the new york historical society. that was 12 years ago now, but it was transformative both in hamilton historiography and in the future of the new york historical society. in addition to curating that show, he wrote a 1999 book , still consulted, alexander hamilton american, as well as books my favorite title what would the founders do? are questions, their answers. our questions, their answers. he is had the dream job that everyone would like, you have one job for a long time as young as he is. he is had it for more than 4 decades. in the same place, he is no senior editor at the national review, for whom he began writing nearly a century ago, half a century ago. pretty extraordinary. he is a winner of the national humanities medal. i have the honor of being honored at the same ceremony with rick eight years ago. it is a pleasure to welcome him for a reunion. that was lincoln forum time in
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