a good evening.

i'm a senior at newark high school and i'm a member of the student advisory council on history.y. i'm pleased to announce i've been accepted at several colleges i including georgetown brown tufts johns hopkins and boston university will be deciding soon. i'm both glad to be here with you all for this important event. the lincoln prize is one of the most prestigious in its field. and while we are sad to not be able to gathernt in celebration with you in person we are honored tol take this program on line and to be joined by more than 1000 teachers students in

history lovers across the country. tonight we celebrate an outliner to distinguish lincoln prizewinners professor elizabeth varon winner of the 2020 prize for her book "armies of deliverance" and professor david reynolds winner for 2021 price for his book "abe" abraham lincoln in his times. we'll be hearing remarks firm both prizewinners and there'll be a live q&a with oath authors abandon the program. additionally you will hear remarks by louis lerman ambassador the gilder institute robert iuliano and a host of other distinguished guests. please note we are going to keep the chat close to minimize any distraction during the program and week urged audience members to submit a question using the q&a feature at the bottom of the screen. before we get started our program tonight will again as it traditionally does with an invitation by scott higgins gettysburg graduate and former

trustee of gettysburg college. friend of lincoln prize and the founder of veterans advantage the nations leading advocate for military veterans. scott we turn to you for the indication. >> good. >> good evening. i'm scott higgins and as a trustee of the lincoln prize i want to welcome you here. the statue sits in front of stephen's hall named for thaddeus stevens the congressman abolitionist who is a longtime trustee the college and provided the land in 1832 upon which the college was l built. i'd like to take a few minutes and prayer. we meet this evening tore recognize that had to celebrate easter in a of two eminent historians elizabeth varon for her "armies of deliverance" the history of the civil war and the bold interpretation of the war aims of the union can better see and david reynolds with "abe" an

eloquent book that rings a lincoln to live in a culture of a turbulent age. we also take an important moment to recognize gilder who passed away this year for his monumental contributions to american history and the gilder lehman institute and we pray for his partner and our partner lou lehrman for his continuous progress back to good health. more than a century and a half after the lincoln era in the civil war we. we continue to your scholarship and research of the lincoln era. we pray that the legacy of the men and women who lived and suffered the horrors of war and the injustices of oppression will be a shining light for future generations of americans and we fervently pray that the ideals and goals which inspired abraham lincoln unions in unity, freedom and dignity for all civility and inspire today's leaders and the people of this

great country so that from the scourges of war and s a pandemic systemic racism civil strife terrorism we are brought together in peace and liberty and with hope. and we ask your blessings upon those who have joined us tonight. amen. >> thank you scott for that eloquent invocation and let the ad my welcome. i'm o james basker and on behalf of the board of lincoln prize that may welcome you to the 30th and 31st lincoln prize award ceremony. in the ear of the zoom exhaustion and webinar weariness thank you all for taking this time. covid caused us to postpone our ceremony and 2020 but tonight we combine it with a 2021 board and a special double presentation. we we are able to do this thanks to the antithetical effort of

diane bennett administered or at at -- and the gilder lehrman to didn't think to the stamina good nature of the lincoln prize jury who agreed to serve two years running professor carolyn jennings from the university of virginia steven from the university of texas and the chair professor and former president of the university of richmond and a trustee of thef gilder lehrman institute. thank you all for making this ceremony possible. normally when we hold this event at the union league club in new york city only 250 people are able to attend so the silver lining to being virtual is that tonight we have more than 1000 people in our audience. many of them are teachers and students tuning in from every state in the union and from abroad. tonight our viewers will be able to hear from to great historians

receiving 50,000-dollar prices, to talk about their ward winning books. 30 years ago working with the professor of gettysburg college decided to create a 50,000-dollar prize at a time when the pulitzer prize was only 5000. the boldness of their vision to shape the field of history and more broadly the whole landscape for book prices ever since. we lost may last year when he died short of his 80th birthday but we will hear message tonight from -- delivered by his son thomas. >> many of us know lou lehrman is not only a successful businessman philanthropist and civic leader he is himself in the story in and author whose many books include lincoln in peoria in 2008 and lincoln and churchill statesman at war, 20 team. lou was the co-founder the gilder lehrman institute and

behind the gilder memory collection was today lies at the heart of the programs and resources that the institute providesre a network of 29,000 schools and more than 7 million schools. with the sense of profound gratitude for all that lou has helped to make possible a turnout to his son thomas lehrman whose a trustee of institute for brief message from lou after which we will see a short video about the lincoln prize. >> good evening. my name is thomas lehrman and i'm happy to share these words from my father with you on the occasion of the gilder lehrman lincoln prize. you all know how much our work together is the common cause and we are grateful or your continued support. imagine now my father's unmistakable presence and voice before you. a friend of the gilder lehrman institute we at the institute find yourselves grateful to you

for so many things. your investment, your encouragement, your belief in our educational purposes. we gather tonight to celebrate american history. one of the greatest stories ever told and we gather specially to honor my co-founder of institute richard gilder. my dear friend you know well how dedicated you are tode the study and teaching of american history. we truly aspire to the goal that everyer american citizen of whatever age will know and embrace and the priceless patrimony we have an hermann -- inherited from generations past. let it also be said that we are committed to this mission unselfconsciously because we believe the study and teaching of american history is one indispensable moral formation of

confidence and responsible american citizens. dick guilder and i deeply leave that the teaching and studies of american history must be this opening up the garden path. to become an american in full and do something of the gilder lehrman institute. thank you very much. ♪♪ >> in a time of unprecedented strife president abraham lincoln took the reins off national leadership and reunited a fractured america. named in honor of the 16th president to the gilder lehrman lincoln prize started in 1990 and has been awarded annually

for words spoken in english on abraham lincoln for the american civil war guilt. for the inspired leadership of louis lehrman and richard gilder the lincoln prize committee has considered more than 3200 books and aborted more than $1.5 million in prizes over the last three decades. the award has honored scholars such as eric bowman, robert fields, the doors current goodman jim mcpherson and filmmaker steven spielberg and ken burns honored for the nyquil prize for his documentary, the civil war. as well as many other. the gilder lehrman lincoln prize has set the standard for scholarly awards and shines a bright light on the legacy of lincoln and his accomplishments as well as the era of the civil war.

although america may change both the memory and the words of abraham lincoln remain prescient. with malice toward none, with charity for all let us strive to finish the work to bind up the nation's wounds and always achieve and share them peace amongst ourselves. the gilder lehrman lincoln prize was sponsored currently by the gilder lehrman institute of american history and gettysburg college. ♪♪ it gives is my purpose now to choose the president of the gettysburg college robert iuliano distinguished lawyer for

former appeals court -- and federal prosecutor. bob was for sever your senior vice president and general counsel at harvard university where he led many university wide initiatives and was president trusted adviser. bob became 15 present at gettysburg college in july 2019 in the midst of his first years resident covid struck in bob has been heroic and very successful in his efforts to lead the college through this challenging time. bob is a member of the lake price school and i can tell you from personal observation he is an ardent and eloquent -- to offer a few remarks about the price and the college here is president robert iuliano. >> i am robert iuliano president of the college and its a pleasure to join you. our college events had a long

relationship with the gilder lehrman institute and it's been a joy to be so involved with the lincoln prize to deserving honoreeses such as elizabeth van and david reynolds for the lincoln prize not only a decadence of the work of scholarship but also as a way of shining a light on ourho shared past and offering a new understanding about how we navigate the f challenges of our world today. it speaks to the education we seek to provide for students at gettysburgrg college. we provide our students with what we call consequential education. one grounded in the belief that knowledge of the past in any discipline our endeavor is critical to the formation of a well reasoned response and it's precisely because of our past we found are committed to the intersection of a defining moment in american history as we

have a special capacity and indeed a special obligation to forge the future of our society and our democracy in these most consequential times. as you know the history of gettysburg college is deeply involved in the events of 1863 events that tested our most fundamental values and indelibly shaped the course of her nation. on july 1, 1863 or college then known as pennsylvania college student in the midst of union and confederate forces the great battles that swept through the heart of our campus and our primary building a at the time until then you served as an academic and residential space forr students that were seized y confederatesas and used as a hospital to treat the armies. pennsylvania hall were madeia to the heart of our campus today and where my office is located and serves as a vivid reminder

to mee every day at how much ths institution's history informs our bellies and aspirations for her future. the college's story turns a man by the name of david wells a graduate of 19611. will spur slaiby to president lincoln to say quote a few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the national cemetery and he and his wife hosted lincoln the evening prior. the next morning on november 19, 1863 are college students and faculty walked there and follow president lincoln to the national cemetery. to hear his iconic addressed first-hand. today our students retrace the steps there a condition we call the first-year walk. our students and their earliest days heard lincoln's words and

reflect on what those words would mean to them over the next four years as a member of her distinctive committee and how many live the promises of those words are out there lies straight to me it's clear that consequential education is inspired by consequential places in our college is indeed situated in one of the mostt consequential places in our country. leaders like lincoln and eisenhower and so many others who throughout her storied history as head of profound impact on who wege are today and what we believe is possible. it's a legacy of force by faculty by the gilder lehrman mbh chair and strengthen events like the annual lincoln lecture and civil war conference which are lincoln prizewinners the gatt. in short students come here to our college to display

surrounded by history and opportunity to build them themselves and each other to responsibility and resolve to take up the great and unfinished work of making a better g world. to me consequence of educated people. consequential lives and we are honored that the gilder lehrman institute prize continues to play an important part of these efforts. again i want to congratulate elizabeth varonnd and david reynolds for the superb publication in which a specially or gratitude inra debt to someoe gilder for all he did in his life and -- someone gilder for all he did

i look forward to connecting with you in the years ahead. take care now. >> a few bob. i'm a senior and member of the gilder lehrman government in history. and please do not have been accepted for three colleges including syracuse university manhattan college and will be deciding soon. i'm honored. the lincoln prize martha hodes professor of history at new york university was the winner of the 2016th gilder lehrman lincoln prize for her book -- professor hodes will be presenting a finalist for the 2020 lincoln prize. take it away martha. goodank you sebastian and evening. my name is martha hodes is by honor to introduce the finalist for the 2020 price. these finalists were chosen by a

jury of distinguished scholars from a pool of more than 100 books nominated for the prize and these historians jane -- join in the last writing or plus 30 as per their first finalist of the 2020 lincoln prize is-- eric spelman for his book the second founding how the civil war and reconstruction and remade the constitution with change -- traces the arc of the 13th 13, 1560 minute. the second is the birth of modern visual politics in america which explores the role of photography in shaping the public's understanding of in the 19th century. the third finalist is stephanie jones rodgers for look -- white

women and slaveowners in the american south that examines white women's participation in the market and how they used it for economic and social advantage. the fourth finalist is caleb mcdaniel's first book the case of liberty a true story of and restitution in america which tells the extraordinary story of an woman who fought for justice and reparations. the fifth finalist was -- for her book black and white the story of mary mildred williams and thet abolitionists movemen. how they galvanized white sympathy. the six finalists with joseph c. levy for his look illusions of emancipation and the pursuit of freedom and equality in the twilight of.

this examines emancipation through the perspective and experiences of african-americans. the seventh finalist for the 2020 lincoln prize is david for his work raising the white flag of surrender defined thishe american civil war. congratulations to all of the 202020 finalists and i'm now gog to turn things back over to the president of the gilder lehrman institute. santa present the 2020 lincoln prize it is now my pleasure to introduce my fellow gilder lehrmann trustee john nau. john is a successful businessman civically and philanthropist who heads up more boards and good causes than you can imagine. among them at various times the national park foundation, the american battlefield trust the university of virginia board of visitors answer 15 years the

texas historical commission. he only gave that up to accept a presidential appointment as chair of the national advisory council on historic preservation where he served for nine years. john is a longtime trustee and generous supporters of gilder lehrman swearing partnership with first lady laura lishey created the national history teacher of the year program operating in all 50 states. now in its 17th year. he's also the founder of the john nau civil war center with its illustrious -- when the jury selected the historian as the winnerin of the 2020 lincoln pre we immediately asked john if he would represent us in presenting the price to her. here to do that right now is her good friend john nau. >> good evening everyone. thank you for that very kind introduction. tonight it is my honor to join

you to present the 2020 lincoln prize onin the half of dick gilr and lou lehrman. established in 1990 the gilder lehrman lincoln prize is awarded annually for the finest scholarly work on abraham lincoln the american civilil war soldier or the american civil war hero. tonight the 2020 lincoln prize is awarded the elizabeth barrett for exceptional book armies of deliverance -- "armies of deliverance" a new history of the civil civil war. liz is one of the leading historians of the civil war era and we are very fortunate to have her leadership and intellect at the center for civil war history and located at the university of virginia. i've had an interest in the study of the civil war since i was a young boy. all started with civil war battlefields on families transferred as a young

undergraduate starting at uva in the fall of 1964 i was surprised when registering for classes that there were no history classes on mid-19th century america. over the years i made up my mind that if i ever had the capacity i would work to establish the 19th century history class at uva. i'm very proud of the work of the center uva and the role that it plays in the study of the american civil war. liz has played a significant role in helping to shape programming at theg center. she is a very talented and dedicated teacher at the undergraduate and graduate level. she has trained a number of excellent doctoral student at uva and many have sought admission to the uva program specifically to work with her. she has published five books about the american civil war

that underscores her impressive range of interests and she has received numerous accolades and recognition for her books. her writing and teaching it made a significant impact and she has played a critical role in sustaining uva's outstanding reputation in the field of civil war history. tonight we recognize and celebrate her outstanding scholarship of the civil war era. the book provides a thorough insightful and very readable history of theor war itself very congratulations to our 2020 lincoln prizewinner dr. elizabeth varon for "armies of deliverance" a new history of the civil war. congratulations liz and thank l you everyone. >> thank you so much john. i am profoundly grateful for this award and for the

opportunity to address you all tonight. i send my congratulations to my fellow author david reynolds. if everr there was a moment to celebrate the public mindedness of the gilder lehrman institute and its support for countries histories educators that moment would be now. we have been reminded again and again in the need to make her our collective scholarship institution accessible to the general public. the unresolved issues at the heart of the civil war the fulfillment of freedom are the issues ofss our time and americs never needed its history educators its k-12 teachers librarians and n archivists and museum national parks colleges and universities and our generation of student teachers more. i set out to write "armies of deliverance" is a public outrage. the book is an interpretive -- meant to convey the analytical insight and the modern

sensibility of civil war. the title of the book captures the argument that the men deliverance is a key to understanding of abraham lincoln and union soldiers marched up to war in 1861 believing their mission saved other people from confederate death. it proved to be a very adaptable political theme with true followers to the union cause and i try in the book to explain the emotional appeal of deliverance rhetoric -- particularly its impact on i try to explain how was that unionists persist inio believing that they could say that even in the massive evidence the confederates did

not want to be saber will conclude ultimately that deliverance helped the unit -- the units when the war but failed to accept peace. to particular insights of modern scholarship and the first the union and competitors or complex political constructs internally divided like fault lines of race class gender or ethnicity race religion and so on. our generalization about the war must account for that complexity to give you a striking sample we can equate the south with the confederacy but we shouldn't do so. doing so is profoundly distorting and anti-confederate. black southern unionists were crucial to history and the major aim of my book was to highlight the role of lack southerners and

the coalition and the ways that the liberators were laboratories. this was a powerful impetus by vince impetus by then to impetus by vince at my hometown of charlottesville, virginia. -we even before the shocking violence of august 2017 researchers and educators in charlottesville have been hard at work recovering a press history in the region. the efforts to recover this history were redoubled the attack on our city and those efforts have made a difference in recognition of the fact that over half of the population was on the eve of the civil war and the fact that many black men fought in the union regiment. the city now celebrates march 3 as liberation and freedom day to mark the moment in 1865 when

union forces tookk possession of charlottesville and brought liberation to the region. the message is a history conducted collectively by a wide range of students and educators and researchers and supported us with a new lens. a second way in which modern scholarship and form my book was in the conviction that our grand narratives are more compelling when they include a wide range of voices and experiences and methodologies military coup political and culture and so on. more than ever civil war integrates the battlefront and the various methods for studying the past i was determined in "armies of deliverance" to read the experiences of voices of women that the narrative nudges for the various roles they played as nurses were former spice teachers and so on but for the salience of their commentary

onon political matters. i was determined to interweave theub public pronouncements of opinion makers and politicians in the present reflection of civilianss and soldiers in their personal letters and correspondence and so one so that i could reveal how the ideologies aren't journalized in people's identities. perhaps the most illuminating research discovery made in writing the book was the theme of deliverance was ubiquitous in the letters that union soldiers rode home to their families from countless battlefields even as the soldiers wereer surrounded. they have in other words deeply internalized the idea that they could change southern hearts and minds. the third and final host ration ofat the ways in which my book reflects modern scholarship and insights in sensibility is in its projection of -- equivalence

between the union and the confederacy. in 1878 there was was a way site in the wrong side sentiment. armies of -- "armies of deliverance" is meant to help us appreciate the meaning of their famous words and their continued plea. there's a right-sided wrong side in the war as reconstruction was running aground. and insisting that the right side won the war federalists were not claiming that the union cause was blameless. douglas >> his life fighting a two-front war against the forces of their and racial discrimination in the north. what he meant was that the civil war was fundamentally a war of ideas between as he put it field the old and the new, and

freedom, barbarism and civilization. the conflict wasvi so better because the ideas that drove it were so -- one would like to imagine the 21st century americans could readily agree that the right side won the war but we have seen so were miters the recent past that the idea that the unit and confederacy or equally deserving of honor has made a comeback in our culture. i'd like to closeo by asking is this history educators and informed citizens to guard against, to reject interviews such falsehoods. might look emphasizes the fundamental idealism of the union. andr. not claiming any more than douglas did that all northerners were saints and all southerners were demons but bringing out the

worst excesses -- excesses and fallibility and cruelty on both sides. remains. are refutable that on thee central issue of union and confederate ideology were opposed union ideology with its emphasis on free labor and majority rule in the slaveholder theld no longer rule country was the framework in which change and progress were possible not inevitable and not easy but possible. figures like frederick douglass and harriet tubman who faced immense divert -- immense adversity open the door change. with its defense of and the political supremacy of slaveholders flat -- flatly rejected it. they sought to close that door

and chain it shut. the union as frederick douglass called himself invoking the war of ideas is based upon the separation of human rights in the confederacy of the space upon denial of all rights. the right side won the war and its its first up is still the promise of that history. thanks. >> hello everyone. my name is agatha and i met jr. and a member of the senior ouadvisory council of the gilded lamb institute of history but i'm honored to introduce our next guest this evening terry walker who would give the lincoln prize. he's an alum and trustee and member of the gilder lehrman lincoln high school. we are honored to have him with us tonight. larry please tell us about the 2021 finalists. >> thank you agatha.

it is a privilege to be here with you my first ever on a velincoln event. the year marks a national crisis. it reminds us that unity is possible and it is my honor to knowledge the 2021 prize finalists whose work contributes to preserving and adapting a legacy. the first finalist of the 2021 lincoln prize is alice -- for herb look south to freedom runaway to mexico and the -- to the civil war. the second finalist for the 2021 gilder lehrman lincoln prize is adrian colossal ambitions which looks at how leading confederate

thinkers -- his relationship with united states and its role in the global war. the third finalist forro the 201 prize is -- for her book the women's fight the civilil war's battle for home freedom and history and it underscores the women were essentially and fully engaged throughout the war. the fourth finalist for the 2021 prize was kenneth w. no the howling storm, whether climate and the americananra civil war h investigates the ways in which weather and climate shaped the outcomes of civil war battles and campaigns. congratulations to all the 2021 finalists and now i'm going to turn things back over to kalina

for we'll introduce you to a next guest. >> allelic internic i speaker is valerie rockefeller who will be presenting the award to the 2021 gilder lehrman prizewinner. valerie has been a trustee of the gilder lehrman to do for five years and is one of its most active and generous supporters. a former classroom teacher who now serves on the board of teachers college at columbia university gallery is a major civic leader who chairs boards of rockefeller or private foundation advancing social change that contributes to more sustainable -- valerie will now deduce the winner of the 2021 prize. i'm honored to introduce the winner off the 2021 gilder lehrman lincoln prize. her festered david reynolds. david is a rather have a native who receive degrees from amherst college college in uc berkley taught american literature and american studies at northwestern universityde barnard college and new york university rutgers university in baruk college. since thousand six has been a

professor at the city of the university of new york where he teaches english and american studies. he is the author or editor of 16 books and his folks have one of bancroft prize the ambassador book award and the meyers outstanding book award. one of his books is a finalist for the book critics circle award. his first book "abe" is set in the culture and social context of this time. in her times book review described itou as a prodigious d lucidly rendered exposition of the character and thought it the 16th president into the prism of the cultural -- sorely disliked him at "the wall street journal" tinted of marcellus by urbieta captures lincoln and all this historical forms. our jury noted through innovative research reynolds played key roles in lincoln's life and his encyclopedic knowledge of americans are religion literature humor and politics allows them to populate

lincoln's nation and its rich in unprecedented detail. it is with great pleasure that i am path of the gilder lehrman institute of history% the gilder lehrman prize to david reynolds and i turned over to david to tell us about his book. c thank you so much for those kind remarks and thanks to the gilder lehrman institute for that wonderful recognition. james basker, robert iuliano ed harris and the others in the community i truly appreciate it and last years winner elizabeth varon spoke so wonderfully earlier about the mission of the institute and its outreach to high schools and congratulations to her. one paragraph and it.

we discussed things and i realize ahead of book inside amoeba of me that have been growing for years and years and scott pulled it outt of me and thanks so much to lenin scott and thanks also to where i teach the city university of new york, a stimulating scholarly environment from the student cohort to the faculty members to the ministry should. thank you so much to kennedy and tube or festers who are colleagues in the history program james oakes the previous winner ofin the lincoln prize ad david who were kind enough to read my long manuscript and gave me what -- such wonderful

insight. outside of kunio want to thank r. wilson scholar and above all my family who is stuck through t thick and thin d it was both a great challenge but great fun to be recognized in the book world and my wife suzanne was working on her book on creativity and the humanities. when my manuscript just finish he had read through chapter by chapter and was just a wonderful commentator so thank you so much. i was going to say walt whitman in his eulogy written after the death of lincoln he describes

how lincoln is the great western star of a limiting the landscape. in a sense that's what lang can always was to me, this kind of beautiful wonderful star but also a a little bit removed but somewhat inaccessible. i don't didn't see them attached toto his contemporary culture tn i spent years thinking about that culture. after all it was the greatest literary period in american literary history. emerson thoreau hawthorne poe emily dickinson or walt whitman and many wonderful figures such as frederick douglas harriett beecher stowe and john brown william lloyd harrison and just so much going on in such a wonderful period and walt whitman in 1856 fantasized about the alleghenies from the west

when illinois was considered -- and he didn't know about lincoln at all but he said both are bearded shrewd honest and whitman said i wish you would step across the alleghenies and right into the - white house. this was the time of james buchanan and franklin pierce and other inferior presence and lo and behold four years later here comes abe and he has sold as the illinois to rail splitter honest abe. he didn't like that name nor did he like mr. president or mr. lincoln. he preferred lincoln but he did say i know i was not going to get elected without the image of abe. that's why i call my book "abe"

bridge about the intersection between him and why he was elected which was his knowledge of contemporary america. emerson said about lincoln he said you know there's no hero in history who encompassed culture and allro ranges of culture from the highest to the lowest and on the high side linking could recite shakespeare by the page. not to brag because these lines meant something to him. he really did bridge a lot of culture and he firmly believe that people are shaped by conditions by their outside conditions indelibly. thee same time he stated he believed in the individuals

capacity to shape an intern for the individual to shape it. it was about that whole letter changeun between him and how tht guided him into the presidency through the civil war. as a nation divided over and in that division he was compared often to the famous tightrope walker who wentlk back and forth across niagara falls backwards for and in chains and on stilts pushing a will barrow and many cartoons and a few times he compared himself to him. people would say can't you go faster on and he would say if -- were going across niagara i have

to stay centered here. if i don't some people were saying too slow and if i don't something bad is going to happen. for example we could lose one of the states. if we lose kentucky will losee everything so i have two stay centered and he was confronted with the culture that was turbulent, rowdy and fragmented. he once called america mobocracy and full of particularly white supremacist mobs that were attacking african-americans and immigrants and alsols abolitionists and he really called for a strict respect for positive on that case and also is, the fragmented nation fullf what we callism such as spiritualism and know nothing -ismsth and utopian social -isms and free love is him.

he was very much aware of all of these -isms but he said you have to concentrate on oneism. he used the word that wasism and douglasism with the possible threat and spread of to the west that was opened up by steven a. douglas what he called the popular sovereignty and the western territory. lincoln put his foot down and said we have to stop douglasism and that's what we have to concentrate on. friend made what was largely a war to preserve the union and is lizza sing for deliverance to specifically get rid of which fortunately waken live to see with the passage of the 13th amendment. it passed congress before -- a few months before he was

assassinated. he was the first person to publicly endorse the vote for african-americans and one thing that helped him a lot was poetry. he loved poetry and on april 9, 1865 when he was on a boat from virginia to washington and that was the day that lee surrendered to grant in everyone on a boat was saying in effect mission accomplished. he referred to read poetry for a few hours. poetry really spoke to him thinking perhaps of the 750,000 or 800,000 people who died in the civil war. it wasn't so much about how great i am but an outreach a troop poetry. poetry is perhaps the most channel concentrator line wage. it's full of feeling and meaning and his greatest speeches are

pros. they are a little over 200 words like his inaugural address which is 700 odd words but it's really poetic andid what lives with us today besides his example is his language the better angels of our nature malice toward none of the people, by the people, for the people. this is language that still survives and in his honor since he loved poetry so much i would like to resolve it the pull of langston hughes the great renaissance pawn to a 19264 years after the lincoln memorial his wonderful marvelous statue had open and langston hughes wrote this poem. washington monument -- lincoln

monument. that's cozy old abe sitting in the marble in the moonlight. sitting lonely in the marble in the moonlight. quiet, that 10,000 centuries, old abe, quiet for 1 million, million years, quiet yet a voice forever against the timeless wall of time. old abe, thank you. >> thank you so much. we are now going to present the q&a portion of the program like to remind you if you have a question you can enter it using the q&a button on the bottom of your screen to look kicked things up with a question from anabel who is in our audience. the first question is for you professor. why did you become and historian?

>> that's a wonderful question and i was inspired by my parents. my parents are immigrants to this country from turkey and germany and they felt that they wanted to get to know the place where they found themselves which happen to be northern virginia so they took me to the smithsonian institute to the various historic sites and their member the smithsonian museum of history that captured my imagination of a very young age and being exposed to artifacts that really caught my attention. and their own love for history and their own sense that u.s. history was important as fascinating as her own backgrounds were. they inspired me to be immersed

in the story and again cites and museums there's just no substitute s for getting to see and hold artifacts to imagine themselves in a place and so one and all historians are so grateful to those visceral tangible experiences. >> thank you so much professor. next question is for you professor reynolds. what surprised you about lincoln during your project on abe? >> thanks for that great question. i think what surprised me was that too many of our opinions of lincoln are born from today's perspective.

one is cherry-pickedy here and there and illinois which is a racist a environment. you can cherry-pick certain things thathe he said at the tie which sounded backwards and so forth. i was surprised by his closeness withth african-americans. right there is presidency where frederick douglass and sojourner truth the african-american feminist and martin delaney who is beyond black lives matter. he was a real radical. they found him the least person they had met and they were quite honest about that.

it kind of helps for me to understand f why he does become the first president of public lee endorsed african-americans. >> thank you so much for that answer. the next questions is from marc dennis proved for you professor. the question was that of researching and writing a new bookr -- change hearts and mind? [inaudible] >> i think in a sense it goes back to lincoln. lincoln puts forward over the course of the war a vision of american reunion, one that i think they would take up after the disastrous presidency of andrew johnson in which he h attempted to blend a sordid

desire for unity with the commitment to principle and so we see lincoln midway through the war with a policy of amnesty to confederates who seem ready to change their hearts and minds. this is a policy less well-known in the policy but very important and potentially ask confederates to pledge future loyalty to the union in hopes to re-create the loyal core of the union not deprived state and future loyalty. so that was an olive ranch a few well but at the same time lincoln stood by his principles so there were voices in the north and the opposition party the democrats agitating for a negotiated peace one in which the union would have to give up emancipation and make concessions to the confederacy

and perhaps even confederate independence over some democrats who are willing to go that far. lincoln wasn't willing to accept this on his enemies terms for they wrote a book about the surrender in which i make the case that brandon lincoln were on the same page in a page was to say yeson we can be magnanims but we occupy the moral high ground come we begin in our magnanimity is to accept your repentance and essentially the message of lincoln and granted the confederacy was we don't want to punish you, lou want you to change and unfortunately the message back was that the confederates would consider the demandnd for change as a form of punishment. >> thank you for that thoughtful answer.st next question mr. reynolds how much more civil war history is

yet to be discovered? >> i'm a great believer that all subjects are infinite and the more that we learn about a subject the more infinite it becomes. i think there is a lot more civil war history to be discovered. i think its book after book after book that reveals more and more dimensions and let me tell everyone that now more than ever many many newspapers pamphlets and books they used to be hard to get coming have to travel to california or here there and everywhere, they are on line and you can do a word search in the database like special art types early english oaks and on and on and on. i think it's the dawn of a whole new era of civil war

scholarships and just scholarship in general. a lot of the archives are her just wonderful, the on line archives are just wonderful. there's a lot of promise out there, there really is. >> we have time for one more question and we want to hear from both dennis. professor is there with you was an instance where you change your mind about one aspect of your subject in the course of writing this look? >> i would say yes. i was looking at union motivation primarily the south of the study of the south a great deal so for me the learning curve with regards to union motivation and i read a lot of public deliverance discourse but i was tempted initially to dismiss it as

propaganda p as the things politicians say to build a certain kind of case and to promote their own power and success. when i read soldiers letters and diariesch and saw that in a momt rhetoric i realized i had as i said briefly that count for the emotional peak of peel of this discourse because it really sunk into the northern population and as david said we have this wonderful access to both public resources but also the digitized letters and diaries so we can compare as we always do on our crosspa referencing which is pat of our work, compare and contrast the public pronouncements with the private ones and in the moment ones and so on. >> thank you professor.

did you change your mind about one aspect during the course of your research? >> it's really great question. i think i change my mind at the very beginning and let me point to very briefly, ritually i was thinking of the subject of religion but i edited that look of lincoln selected writings and there was so much intersection with the culture now that it's playing on a lot of the goodies and thoughts and it became really a biography and what i would call it cultural biography that tries to encompass so much the culture. .. how that intersects with strands in the larger culture, and i found this really

did apply to lincoln. so, this whole broadening from that early focus to a full scale this whole broadening from the early focus to the full scale biography was a major change. >> host: thank you so much, not foran everyone in the audience we appreciate your questions. i'm sorry we did not get the answer more of them. i'm going to turn things over too helena will be closing out our program for. >> what a great q and a. thank you both again for taking questions from the audience. most of our prizewinners have been featured on a free online program where authors discuss their books and depth. if you enjoyed today's program and want to learn more we encourage you to view recordings of those sessions. links to those of a drop in the chat for this also links in the chat you can purchase

abraham lincoln's and his times as well as copies of books. the institute has a whole range of public programs and researchers for teachers and history lovers. we hope you'll check out our website for more information on upcomingit programs and to get further in group gauge with the institute. in particular would like to invite everyone here tonight to join us one month from today for our annual gala happening online for the first time ever. you can learn more about the gala through the chat. lastly we would like to thank our donors who supported this and support allows us to haprovide this program for free. this helps ensure civil war t scholarships are situated in the mainstream of american history education and we are deeply grateful for your support. if you enjoyed tonight's program you want to support the prize you can do so through the link in the chat. with that, thank you for joining us this evening congratulations again to

professor david reynolds and. [inaudible] we hope everyone has a nice evening we hope to see you at another event soon. goodbye everyone. >> weekends on the cspan2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday will find events and people that explore our nations passed on american history tv. on sunday, book tb brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. it is television for serious readers. learn, discover, explore, weekends on cspan2.

>> c-span shop store a collection of c-span products browse to see what is new your purchase will support our nonprofit information and you can order the congressional direct with contact information for members of congress and the biden administration go to cspanshop.org. >> hello everyone. and welcome it and polluting our visitors and viewers from c-span. i am a jim kelly director of the center for global security analysis and proud to be cosponsoring thisos webinar by "lincolnomics" with our partners the museum of american finance in the cfa society of new