begin to be received wednesday, september 8th. for competition rules, tips and more information on how to get started, visit our web site at studentcam.org. ♪ ♪ muck. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good evening and welcome to the lincoln prize. i'm a senior at madison high

school in new york city and a member of the student advisory council at the gilderlerman institute of history. i will be deciding soon where to start in the fall i'm thrilled to be here this evening with you all speaking at this important event. the gilder-lehrman lincoln prize is one of the most prestigious, and while i'm sad we're not able to gathered in person, we are honored to take this program online and to be joined i by more than a thousand students, teachers and history lovers across the country. tonight we celebrate not one, but two distinguished lincoln prize winners, the author of "armies of deliverance," and professor david reynolds and his book, "abraham lincoln and his time." there will be a live q&a with

both authors at the end of our hour of long program. additionally, we'll hear remarks by liz lehrman, and a host of other distinguished guests. please note we are going to keep the chat closed to minimize any distraction during the program, but we encourage audience members to submit questions in the q&a feature at the bottom of the screen. before we get started, our program tonight will begin as it traditionallyy does as an invocation. scott, we turn to you for the invocation. me you to our virtual celebration of the prize. behind me is a statue of mr. lincoln signing the emancipation proclamation which

i'm proud to say that lynn and i and-under around checker higgins family, donatessed to get tis burg college. the statute is in front of stevenses hall, named for the congressman abolitionist who wag a longtime crustee of the college provided the landin' 1832 response the welcome was built. let's us take a few minutes in prayer. lord god we meet this evening to recognize and to celebrate the extraordinary work of two eminent historians, elizabeth varon for her armies deliverance, new history of the civil war, and a sweeping narrative of the civil bar and a bold flu interpretation of the war aims over the union and the confederacy. and david reynolds, abe, an elegant book that brings abraham lincoln to life within the culture of a turbulent age. on this occasion we take an important moment to recognize dick gilder who passed away this year for this monumentsal contribution to american history and the gilder lamon institute.

and we pray for his partner and our partner, lou for his continued progress back to good health. more than a century and a half after the lincoln era and the civil war we pray lord god for continued teaching scholarship and research of the lincoln era. we pray the legacy of the men and women who lived and suffered the honor years of war and the injustices of oppression will be a shining light to future generations of americans, and be pray that the ideals and the goals which inspired abraham lincoln, union, and unity, freedom and dignities for all, and civility, will inspire today's leaders and and the people of this great country so that from the scourge war, rebellion, pandemic, systemic racism, civil strife and terrorism we are brought together in peace and liberty and with hope. we ask your blessing on those who have joined us tonight.

amen. >> thank you, scott, for that elegant invocation. and let me add my welcome. i'm jim bass ancestor, performing of the institute of american history. and on behalf of the board of the lincoln prize let me welcome you to the 30th and 31st 31st lincoln prize award ceremony. in a year of zoom exhaustion and webinar weariness, thank you all for taking the time to join us. covid caused us to postpone our ceremony in 2020, but tonight we combine it with the 2021 award in a special double presentation. we are able to do this thanks to the indefatigable he effort offered diane brennan the prize administrator and cassidy hook are events manager at the institute. and thank you also to the stamina and good nature of the lincoln prize jury who agreed to serve two years running,

professors caroline janney of the university of virginia, and steven mints of the university of texas and at the chair express former chair of the university of virginia, eds ayers. thank you for making this ceremony possible. >> normally when we holding this event at the union league club in new york city, only about 250 people are able to attend. so the silver ling to being virtual is tonight we have more than 1,000 people in our audience. ...

at a time when it's only 5000. the boldness of their vision to shape the field of history and more broadly the whole landscape ever since. we lost nick in may of last year when he died three weeks short of his 80th birthday but we will hear message tonight from his son thomas. as many in the audience know not only is he a civic leader and philanthropist he is himself a historian and why did published author but his many books include lincoln in peoria in 2008 and lincoln and churchill statesman of four in 2018. together with nick he was the co-founder of the gilder lehrman institute which today lies at the heart of the program of resources that provides a network of 29,000 schools and more than 7 million students.

with a her sense of profound gratitude for help make this puzzle we turned to his son thomas lehrman a trustee of institute after which we will see a short video about the history of the lincoln prize. >> good evening. my name is thomas lehrman and i'm happy to hear these words of my father with you on the occasion of the gilder lehrman lincoln prize. you all know how much our work together in this common cause means to him and we are grateful for your continued support. imagine now my father's unmistakable presence and voice. distinguished friends of the gilder lehrman institute we as an institute find ourselves grateful to you for so many things were investment your encouragement, your belief in our educational reason. we gather to celebrate american history.

one of the greatest stories ever told and we gather especially to honor my co-founder from the institute richard gilder. my dear friends you know how we dedicated we are to the study of american history. we truly aspire to the goal that every american citizen of whatever age will know and embrace the price was passion we have inherited ford generations past. let it also be said that we are committed to this mission unselfconsciously because we believe the study of american history is one indispensable formation of confidence and responsible american citizens. nick gilder and i history majors at yale university long ago deeply believe that the study of american history must be what

opens the garden path to every single citizen so it can be an american in full and that's founding of the gilder lehrman institute. thank you very much. >> at a time of unprecedented strife president abraham lincoln took the reins of national leadership and reunited a fractured america. named in honor of the 16th present the gilder lehrman lincoln prize started in 1990 and has been awarded annually for abraham lincoln the american civil wars soldier for the american civil war hero. 50 the inspired leadership of louis lehrman and richard gilder

the lincoln prize committee has considered more than 3200 works that awarded more than $1.5 million in prices over the last three decades. the award has on the scholars such as barbara fields doris kearns goodwin jim macpherson and filmmaker steven spielberg and timbers honored for the not for four the not for a price for his documentary message the silver roll -- the civil war as well as many others. the gilder lehrman lincoln prize has set the standard for scholarly awards and shines a bright light on the legacy of lincoln and the breadth of his accomplishments as well as the heroes of the civil war. although america may change and grow the memory in the words of abraham lincoln remain precious. with malice toward none let charity belong. let us drive on and finish the

work we are in the mind of the nation's wounds to bind up the nation's men's to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. ♪♪ smack it is my privilege not introduce the president gettysburg college robert juliano a distinguished lawyer of former pew court clerk and federal prosecutor. bob was for several years in your vice president and general counsel at harvard university where he led many university wide initiatives and was president and a trusted adviser.

bobby came the 15 president of the gettysburg college in july of 2019. he and his first year residency covid struck and he was very successful in meeting the college's during this time. i can tell you from personal observation he is an ardent and eloquent participant in the board could offer a few remarks about the college here is president bob juliano. >> good evening everyone. i'm bob juliano present at gettysburg college and it's truly an honor to join you for this special celebration. our colleges have a long and strong relationship with the gilder lehrman institute of american history and it's been a joy to be so intimately involved in the selection and presentation of the lincoln prize and andre such as

elizabeth barrett and david reynolds. the lincoln prize ali recognizes the work of essential scholarship but also has a way of shining a light on our shared past and offering a new understanding for how we navigate the challenges by our world today. the sentiments these powerfully to the education we provide for students at gettysburg college. but because we provide students with what we call a consequential education when grounded in the belief that knowledge in any discipline or endeavor is critical for the formation of a well reasoned and creative response. it's precisely because of our past and that our argument is at the intersection of the defining moment in american history that we have the gettysburg college have a special capacity and indeed a special obligation to forage the future of our society and democracy particularly in these most consequential times. as you know the history of

gettysburg college is deeply enshrined with the events of 1866 events that tested our most fundamental values and indelibly shaped the course of our nation. on july 1 come 1863 pennsylvania college student amidst of the union and confederate forces. the great battle swept through the heart of our campus and i'm buildings would serve as an academic and residential space for students to be used as a field hospital to treat the wounded soldiers of the army. pennsylvania our mates at the heart of our campus today and it's where my office is located and serves as a vivid reminder to me everyday at how much this institution's history forms our values and aspirations. following the battle the story turns a man by the name of david

wills the gettysburg graduate of the class of 1861. wills invited president lincoln to say quote a few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the national cemetery in the lincoln home the evening prior but the next morning on november 19, 1863 are students and faculty walk to the town square and followed president lincoln to the national cemetery to hear his iconic address first-hand. today our students retrace the steps each ball through a tradition we call the hero walk. when they arrived at the cemetery are students in their earliest days at gettysburg school here lincoln's word and reflect on what those words will mean to them over the next four years as a member of art distinctive community and indeed how they can live the promise of those words throughout their lives. to me it's clear that

consequential education is inspired by consequential places and our colleges indeed situated in one of the most consequential places in our country. that matters and leaders like lincoln eisenhower and so many others throughout the college's storied history of has had a profound impact on who we are today and the change we believe is possible. the legacy at the gilder lehrman civil war era studies and history and events like the annual lincoln lecture in civil war institute conference which are lincoln prizewinners speak at in the summer. short students come here to our college, to this place surrounded by history an opportunity to build in themselves and each other their responsibility and resolve to pick up the great and unfinished work of making a better world. indeed consequently educated people.

for themselves consequential lives and we are honored that the gilder lehrman institute of the lincoln prize continues to play an important part in these efforts. again i want to congratulate elizabeth varon and david reynolds. i want to especially acknowledge our gratitude for nick gilder for all he did including through his support of the lincoln prize and a wish to thank louis lehrman for his vision and leadership and commitment to improving our understanding of the world in the studies of our past and lastly a big thank you to all of you so much for joining us in a special event in a tour to seeing you at the gettysburg college in the years ahead. take care now. >> thank you bob. i'm a senior in new york city and member of the student

advisory council of the gilder lehrman institute for history. i'm pleased to announce i've been accepted into three colleges including syracuse university manhattan college and i am a college and will start soon in the fall but i'm honored to take the next that. lincoln prizewinner martha hodes suppressed besser of history at new york university winner of the 2016 gilder lehrman lincoln prize for her book mourning lincoln. professor sipri will present the finals for the 2020 lincoln prize. take it away martha. >> thank you sebastian and good evening. my name is martha hodes and it's my honor to introduce the finalists for the 2020 lincoln prize. the files were chosen by distinguished scholars from a pool of more than 100 looks nominated for the prize. we have named a finalist for the president speaker's award and a unique group that includes the

very best history writing over the last 30 years. her first finalists is a 2020 lincoln prize is -- for his book the second coming of the civil war and reconstruction remade the constitution which traces the art of three foundational amendments the 13th, 14th and 15th. the second finalist was matthew for his book -- photography human bondage in 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 was stephanie e. jones rodgers for her book day worker property white women and slaveowners in the american south which examines white women in the market and how they use it for economic and social advance. the fourth finalist is caleb

mcdaniel for his book the case of liberty a true story of in restitution in america which tells the extraordinary story of henrietta woods and enslaved woman who fought for justice and reparation. the fifth finalist was jesse morgan owens for her book -- the story of marion mildred williams and the abolition movement which looks at how photographs of enslaved 7-year-old child who passed as white galvanized white sympathy for the abolitionist cause. the six finalists was joseph p. reedy for his book delusions of emancipation freedom and equality in the twilight of which examines emancipation the aftermath of the perspective and experiences of african-americans. the finalists finalist for the 2020 lincoln prize is david for his book raising the white flag

house house surrendered to find the american civil war vets untaxed the social political and cultural meaning of surrender during the civil war. congratulations to all of the 2020 finalist and i'm now going to turn things back over to the president the gilder lehrman institute. >> presented a 20 toilet comprises my pleasure to introduce my fellow gilder lehrman trustee john. john is a successful businessman and civic leader and philanthropist who heads up more boards in 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 and for 15 years but texas historic connection but he only gave that up to accept a presidential appointment as chair of the national advisory council on the start reservation where he served for nine years. john is a longtime trustee and

generous supporter of gilder lehrman who are in partnership with first lady laura bush he created the national history teacher of the year program operating in all 50 states and now in its 17th year. he's also the founder of the john now center for historic study with its illustrious program. when the jury selected a historian from uva is the winner of the 2020 lincoln prize he immediately asked john if he would present the price to her. here to do that right now is a good friend john now. >> good evening everyone. thank you jim for that very kind introduction. tonight it's my honor to join you to present the 2020 lincoln prize on behalf of nick gilder and lou lehrman. established in 1990 the gilder lehrman lincoln prize is awarded annually for the finest scholarly work in english on

abraham lincoln, the american civil war soldier or the american civil war hero. tonight the 2020 lincoln prize is awarded to elizabeth varon for her exceptional book "armies of deliverance" a new history of the 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 nau center. it had an interest in the study of the civil war since i was a young boy. all started with civil war battlefield tours on family trips. 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 this 19th century america. over the years i've made up my mind that if i ever had the

capacity i would work to establish a 19 system -- i'm very proud of the work of the nau center at uva in the world that it's played in the study of the american civil war. liz has played a significant role in helping to shape programming at the nau center. she she's a very talented and dedicated teacher at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. she is trained a number of doctoral student said uva and many have sought admission to the uva program specifically to work with her. she has published five talks about the american civil war that underscore her impressive range of interests and she has received numerous accolades and recognition for her books. her writing and teaching have made a significant impact and she has played a critical role

in sustaining uva's outstanding reputation in the field of civil war era history. tonight we recognize and celebrate her outstanding scholarship of the civil war era. her book provides a thorough insightful and very readable history of the war itself. congratulations to art 2020 lincoln prizewinner, dr. elizabeth varon for "armies of deliverance" a new history of the civil war. congratulations liz and thank you everyone. >> thank you so much john. i'm profoundly grateful for this award and for the opportunity to address you all tonight and i extend my congratulations to my fellow honoree and all the wonderful finalists. if there ever there's a mom to celebrate the public mindedness of the gilder lehrman institute and support for countries

history educators that moment is now. we are reminded again and again of the need to make our collective scholarship accessible to the general public. the issues at the heart of the american civil war bullets labor and the fulfillment of freedom are the issues of our time. america's never needed educators k-12 teachers and librarians and archivists newsstands national parks colleges and universities with generations of student teachers. i set out to write "armies of deliverance" is a public outreach in mind. the hook was an interpretive meant to convey the analytical insights and the modern sensibilities of civil war scholarship in the 21st century. the title of the book captures this argument that the theme of deliverance is key to understanding the war under

abraham lincoln and the union. the union soldiers are taught to war in 1861 believing their mission saved people from confederate death. deliverance proved to be a very addabbo political fame -- adaptable political theme that enabled the abraham lincoln broad coalition to wage a civil war. i train the book to explain the emotional appeal of deliverance and rhetoric particularly its impact on soldier motivation and i try to explain how it was the union has persisted in believing they save themselves even in the face of massive evidence that confederates did not want to be saved to my book concludes ultimately that deliverance help the union when the war but conceded confederates to accept these for black freedom.

as i researched and wrote this "armies of deliverance" three particular insight of scholarship are central and the first is that the union and confederacy were complex political constructs internally divided by race class gender ethnicity region religion and so one. our generalizations about the war left complexity. to give you a striking example would we can equate the south but we shouldn't do so. doing so is profoundly distorting and anti-confederate confederate. black southern unionists were crucial to the victory and the major aim of my book was to highlight the role of blacks southerners and lincoln's coalition and the way the liberators were liberatory's. this was given a power -- powerful -- in my hometown of

charlotte's -- charlottesville. researchers and educators in charlottesville have been hard at work recovering a history of unionism in the region. the efforts to recover its history will be doubled after the attacks on our city and the efforts have made a difference in recognition of the fact that over half of the population of virginia was enslaved on the eve of the civil war and the fact many black man fought in union our city celebrates march 3 as liberation and freedom day in 1865 when unions took possession ofofcharlottesville and tiliberation to the region . the message is that public history conducted collectively by educators and researchers i supported us with a newlens .

the second way in which modern scholarship informs my book was in the convictions that are grand narratives are more compelling when they include a wide range of voices and experiences and blend a range of historical methodologies, military, political and soon . more than ever civil war history integratesthe events of the battlefront and the various methods for studying the past . i was determined to weave the experiences andvoices of women throughout the narrative , not only the roles they played as nurses, reformers, spies, teachers and so on but for the salience of their commentary on political matters. i was also determined to interweave the public pronouncements of opinion makers like politicians with the private reflections of civilians and soldiers and

their personal letters and correspondence and so on so that i could reveal how ideologies are internalized and become part of people's identities. perhaps the most illuminating research discovery i made in writing the book was that the theme of deliverance was ubiquitous in the letters union soldiers wrote both to their family from countless battlefields even as the soldiers were surrounded by evidence of the worst brutality and of its toll. they had in other words deeply internalized the idea that they could change southern hearts and minds. the third and final illustration of the ways in which my book reflects modern scholarship and its insights and sensibilities is in its rejection of false equivalence between the union and the confederacy. frederick douglass intoned famously there was a right side and wrong side inthe late war which no sentiment ought to cause us to forget .

armies of deliverance is meant to help us appreciate the meaning of those famous words andtheir continued relevance . douglas delivered this pre-plea there's a right side and wrong side as reconstruction was running aground on the shoals of racism and recalcitrance and insisting the right side won the war douglas was not claiming that the union cause was more mature or blameless. in fact douglas spent his life fighting the two front war against the forces of southern slavery and persistent racial discrimination in the north. what he meant was that the civil war was fundamentally a war of ideas between and he put it the old and the new, slavery and freedom, barbarism and civilization. the conflict was so bitter because the ideas that drove it were so sharply opposed.

one would like to imagine 21st-century americans could agree the right side won the war but we've seen sobering reminders in the recent past false equivalency, the idea enthe union and the confederacy were equally deserving of honor has made a comeback in american culture so i'd like to propose by asking us as history educators and informed citizens to guard against and reject and review such false outlooks. my book emphasizes the fundamental outlook of the war. i'm not claiming any more than douglas did that all northerners were safe for all southerners were demons but even after we counted for the wars excesses or its costs, for the human suffering and volatility and cruelty on both sides, it remains irrefutable that on the central issue of slavery union and confederateideology

were starkly opposed . union ideology was founded on free labor and majority rule and consistence that slaveholders noshould no longer rule the country of the framework in which change and progress were possible, not inevitable, not easy but possible. figures like frederick douglass and harriet coming in the face of immense adversity had cracked open the door to change . confederate ideology by contrast was of the political supremacy of slaveholders flatly rejected the possibility of progress. confederates worthy of our enemies of frchange and they sought toclose that door of freedom and chain shops . they union cause as frederick douglass put it himself invoking the war of ideas was based upon the broadest and grandest declaration of human rights the world ever heard or read and the confederacy

was based upon a shocking denial of all rights. the right side won the war but has still to fulfill the promise of that victory. >> my name is i just in your go, a junior and a member of the student advisory council of the institute of american history. i'm honored to introduce our next guest larry d walker who will be acknowledging silence in 2021 lincoln class . larry is a businessman and alum and trustee of gettysburg college and a member of the group that ultimately determines the prizes. we are honored to have him withus today . please tell usabout the 2021 finalists . >> thank you and good evening. it's a privilege to be here with you tonight on the first ever online meeting of tonight's event and in a year marked by national crisis,

scholarship dealing with sh lincoln's legacy reminds us unity is possible through great leadership and it is my honor to acknowledge the 2021 finalists whose work contributes to preserving that legacy. first finalists for the 2020 lincoln price was alice lombard for a book balance to freedom, runaway slaves to mexico and the road of the civil war r which examines how mexico's abolition of slavery in 1837 looks increasingly radical anti-slavery policy helped spark the civil war in theunited states . a second finalists for the 2021 prize was adrian battle, colossal ambitions for a post civil war world which looks at how leading confederate thinkers envisioned a postwar nation, its relationship with the united states and its role in the war. the third finalists for the 2020 price is napoleon glimpse for her book women's

rights and battles for home and nation which provides a comprehensive new history of women's lives and contributions during the civil war. it underscores how women were essentially and fully engaged throughout the war. the fourth finalists for the 2021 prize was helen storm, weather, climate and the american civil war which investigates the waysin which weather and climate . the outcomes of civil war campaigns. congratulations to all the finalists and now i'm going to turn things back over to elena who will introduce our next speaker . >> our next speaker is valerie rockefeller who will be presenting the award for the 2021 gilder prizewinner. valerie has been entrusted with the institute for five years and is one of its most generous supporters. a former teacher who serves on the board, foundry is a

major chair of the board of the rockefeller prize, a private foundation advancing social change that contributes to a more sustainable world. valerie will lnintroduce the 2020 price. >> i'm honored to introduce the winner of the gilder lehrman price. he taught american literature and american studies at northwestern university, barnard college, new york university, rutgers and baroque college. he teaches english and american studies. he is author or editor of 60 books and his books have one the bangkok prize, christian cross award, ambassador book award and the myers outstanding book award and one of his books is a finalist for the new york book critics circle award.

his book is a beautifully written life of lincoln that in a cultural and social context of its time the new york times book review described as a prodigious and lucidly written exposition of the character and thought of the 16th president as gleaned through the prism of the social forces swirlingthrough america . the wall street journal deemed it a marvelous cultural biography that captures lincoln and all his historical trauma. innovative research reynolds evoked the setting that play key roles in lincoln's life and his encyclopedic knowledge of humor and politics s,allows them to populate lincoln's time in detail. it's a great pleasure that i on behalf of the gilder lehrman institute of american history present the gilder lehrman lincoln prize to david reynolds. i turn it over to professor reynolds to tell us about his book. >> thank you so much for

those kind remarks and thanks to the gilder lehrman institute for this wonderful recognition. bob galliano and the others on the committee are truly appreciated and last year's winner was a great book so i learned about the mission of the institute and its outreach to high schools so congratulations to her and a background of my book, i want to mention jacqueline nesbitt who circulated a third proposal and one paragraph in it on lincoln caught the eye of the lawyers and we discussed things and i realized i had a book inside of me that had been growing for years and years and it's got kind of pulled it out of me and thanks so much to lynn

and scott and thanks also to where i teach, the graduate center at city university of new york. it's a stimulating scholarly environment from the student cohorts to the faculty members to the administration . thank you so much to tune and particularly 2 professors, colleagues in thehistory program . james oaks, winner of the lincoln prize and david wall striker who were kind enough to read my long manuscript that was still on the screen. they gave me such wonderful insights and edits and so forth. outside of cuny i want to thank marcus l wilson and nathan, a wonderful americanness who has written a manuscript and above all my

family who have stuck by me through thick and thin and it was both a great challenge but also great fun to be writing my book while my wife suzanne was working on her book on creativity and neuroscience in the humanities and when my manuscript was finished suzanne sat down and very carefully read through ha chapter by chapter, was just a wonderfulcommentator so thank you so much . and i was going to say walt whitman in his poem, his wonderful eulogy written after the death of lincoln when lilacs last in the door yard bloomed, he describes lincoln at the great western star illuminating the landscape, the american landscape and in a sense that's what lincoln always was to me. this kind of beautiful,

wonderful star but also a little bit removed and someone inaccessible. i didn't see him very well attached to his contemporary culture and i spent years taking about that culture, after all it was the greatest literary period in history. emerson, thoreau, poe and emily dickinson, walt whitman and then you meet such wonderful individuals as frederick douglass, harriet beecher still and of course there wasjohn brown , just so much going on and it's such a wonderful period. walt whitman in 1856 fantasized about a president coming from across the alleghenies from the west in fact, the illinois and he didn't know about lincoln at all that he said bowman and workingmen, bearded, shrewd,

a working person of honest and whitman said i wish he would go across the alleghenies and ride into the white house . this was at the time of frank buchanan and pierce was the other inferior president and lo and behold, four years later here comes a. and he is sold as a illinois rail splitter and lincoln didn't like that name, nor did he like mister president or mister lincoln. he preferred lincoln but he did say i know i was not going to get elected without the image and that's what i call my book a. it's about an intersection between him and basically what got him elected. which was his knowledge of his contemporary america and emerson said about lincoln,

there's no hero in history who encompassed culture, all ranges of culture from the highest to the lowest and the high side, lincoln could recite shakespeare bythe page . not to brag, just as these lines meant something to him and he like body jokes and frontier humor and everything in between . savvy parlor songs and so forth so he did reach all range of cultures and he strongly believes that people are shaped by conditions, by their outside conditions and indelibly shaped but at the same time he stated he believes in the individual's capacity to shape, to intern feedback intoculture and for the peindividual to shape it . so my book is really about the whole interchange between him and his surrounding

culture and how that guided him intothe presidency and through the civil war . and it was a nation divided course over slavery and in that division he was compared often to london, the famous tightrope walker and he went back and forth across niagara falls, no net. backwards, forwards in. pushing a wheelbarrow, and many cartoons featured lincoln and in a few times he compared himself with london and people would say can't you go faster on slavery? he said if carl's london were going across niagara would you tell him to go this way or to that way, tilt to the left or to the right? i have to stay centered here and if i don't people will say i'm too slow, others will say i'm too fast.i don't something bad is going to happen, we can lose one of the border states and if we

lose kentucky we're going to lose everything. so i have to say centered. and he was also confronted with a culturethat was turbulent, rowdy . and fragmented. he once called america on mob accuracy, democracy and particularly white supremacist mobs that were attacking african-americans and immigrants and also abolitionists and they really called for a strict respect of positive law in that case and talso he, it was a fragmented nation full of what we call isms. such as spiritualism and know nothingism. and utopian socialism and free love and on and on and maine law and he was very much aware of all these isms but he said in his words, we have to concentrate on one is him. he used the word douglas is him and douglas is him was

the possible spread, that threatened spread of slavery to the west that was opened up by stephen a douglas. when he called for popular sovereignty in the western territories . lincoln puts his foot down and said we have to stop douglas is and that's what we have to concentrate on and he did that so marvelously throughout the civil war and finally what was initially hardly an award that reserved the union and liz was saying earlier for deliverance, became an award specifically to rid of slavery which fortunately lincoln lived to see with the passage of the 13th amendment. it had passed congress just a few months before he was assassinated so but he did become the first president to publicly endorse the vote for african-americans. so one thing that helped him a lot was poetry. he loved poetry and on april 9 1865 when he was on the

boat from virginia to washington, that was the day lee surrendered to grant and everyone on the boat was saying in effect mission accomplished. this is great, we won. he preferred to read poetry fora few hours and it was poetry about death . poetry, he was thinking perhapsabout the 750,000 or 800,000 people who died . and the civil war, that's where his thoughts were. it wasn't so much about hows great i am about how great the north is . it was an outreach through poetry and poetry is the most channel concentrated language and it really focuses feeling at the meeting so wonderfully and really is a, his speeches are prose poems. therefore, a little over 200 words. the second inaugural address which is about 700 odd words but it's so pithy and poetic and what lives with us today

besides his example is his language . the better angels of our nature, our malice towards none . for the people, by the people. there's this language that still survives trand in his honor i guess since he loved poetry so much i would like to recite a poem of life langston hughes, the great harlem renaissance poet in 1926 shortly about four years after the lincoln memorial ran columns these wonderful marblestatues wide open and langston hughes wrote this poem . it's called washington monument. washington's. lincoln, i washington. let's go see cool days sitting in themarket, in the moonlight . sitting lonely in the marble, in the moonlight. quiet, at 10,000 centuries.

old age. quiet for 1 million million years. quiet and get a voice. forever. against the timeless walls. of time. thank you thank you so much. and now we're going to move into the q&a portion of the program and i like to remind audiencemembers if you have a question you can enter it using the button on the bottom of your screen .as we're going to things off with a question from anna and the firstquestion is for you. why did you become a historian . >> that's a wonderful question and i was inspired by my parents, my parents both 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 happens to be northern virginia so they took me to this smithsonian institute to the various history sites and the region. i remember at the smithsonian museum of american history civil war exhibit captured my imagination a young age and being exposed to the artifacts of the historic site that really caught my my attention. and their own love for history and their own sense that us history was important as fascinating as their own backgrounds were. they really inspired me to you know, to get immersed in this story and again, site the museums, there's just no substitute for adding to see and hold artifacts and

imagine yourself in place and so on and all historians are so grateful to those made those kind of visceral tangible experiences possible . >> thank you so much. ournext question is for eva, , this is for you . what surprised you most about lincoln during the research? >> thanks for that great question . i think what surprised me was that too many of our opinions of lincoln are just formed from today's perspective. you have to understand him in his own time. one can hear in his early speeches when he was in illinois which is a racist environment and he was running for office against stephen douglas, you can

cherry pick certain things that he said at the time to sound quite sort of backwards and so forth but i was surprised by his sincere closeness to tr african-americans that stretch from springfield when he lived in a neighborhood where there 20 african-americans he was ri close to through his presidency when sfrederick douglass who met him in the white house and the american feminists and martin delaney who was beyond black lives matter, he was real radical and he met him and they found him the least prejudiced person they had met and they were quite honest about that. so is else for me to understand why he does become the first president to publicly endorse the vote for african-americans.

>> thank you for the answer. the next question is from markup. the question is what did researching and writing your book eliminate for you about the endeavor of changing hearts and minds in a renewed moment? >> i think that in a sense this brings us back to lincoln. lincoln put forward over the course of the war a vision of american reunion, one that i think brent would eventually take up after the disastrous presidency of andrew johnson in which he attempted to blend a sort of desire for unity with the commitment to principle and so we see lincoln midway through the war promulgate policy of amnesty to confederates who

seemed ready to change their hearts and minds. this is a policy that's less well-known and his emancipation policy but very important and it essentially asks confederates to pledge future loyalty to the union which hoped to re-create the loyal core and some of the union occupied states through these pledges of future loyalty. that was an olive branch if you will but at the same time instead by his principles so there were voices in the north, the opposition party of the democrats, advocating and for a negotiated peace in which the unions would perhaps give up emancipation or make concessions to the confederacy, perhaps even confederates independence. there weresome so-called copperhead democrats who were willing to go that far . lincoln was willing to accept peace on his enemies terms i wrote a book about the surrender at appomattox in

which i made the case that he and lincoln were on the same page that page was to say yes, we can be magnanimous but we occupy the moral high ground. we the union and our magnanimity is intended to affect your repentance and you know, essentially the message of lincoln and grants to the confederacy was we don't want to punish you, we want you to change and unfortunately a message back was that confederates would consider the demand for change as a form of punishment. >> thank you for that thoughtful answer. our next question is for dawn . how much more of civil war history is yet tobe ? >> i'm a great believer in what herman melville said. he said all subjects are infinite. and athe more that we learn

about a subject and the more infinite itbecomes . i think that inthere's a lot more civil war history to be discovered. i think that book after book reveals more and more dimensions and let me just tell everyone that now more than ever, there's a lot to be discovered. many many newspapers, pamphlets, books, speeches that use to be very hard to get, you had to travel i don't know where. california or here there and everywhere, there on the line and you can word search them through databases and there's archives. early english books and on and on. so i think we could be at the dawn of a whole new era of civil war scholarship and just scholarship in general. i teach a course at the grand center called mining the archives among the archives are the online archives are just wonderful. so there's a lot of promise

outthere, there really is . >> we have time for one more question and we'd love to hear from you on this. professor, let's start with you. is there an instance where you change your mind about one aspect of your subject during the course ofwriting this book ? >> i would say that yes, i was looking at union motivation, i'm primarily a historian of the south and i studied the south great deal so for me the learning curve was regards to union motivation so i read a lot of public deliverance discourse but i was tempted initially to sort of dismiss its propaganda as the kind of things politicians take to build a certain kind of case and to promote their own power and success. it was when i read soldiers letters and diaries and solos

echoes in the moment sources, the private sources of deliverance rhetoric that i realized i have as i said briefly to account for the emotional appeal of this discourse because it really something in in the northern population and as david said, we have this full access to both public resources but also to digitize letters and diaries so that we can compare and we always do in our cross referencing at the heart of our work compare and contrast the public pronouncements with the private ones, thereare retroactive announcements with the in the moment once . >> thank you professor, let's hear from you. did you change your mind about these aspects duringthe course of your research ?>> it's a great question and i think i changed my mind at l the beginning and let me explain briefly.

originally i was thinking about just ithe book on women and religion but i've edited a book on norton, lincoln's selected writings and i found so much intersection with his contemporary culture and how it explains a lot of his activities and thoughts but i belonged it and it became really a biography, a cultural biography that tries to encompass so much of the culture that he knew and i think we're all very soundly influenced by our culture, our family culture,local school culture, our church, whatever . and how that intersex with certain trends in the larger culture and i found this really did apply to lincoln so there's this whole running from the early focus to a full-scale out of the was really for me a major change.

>> thank you so much professor van and professor reynolds, everyone in the audience. we appreciate your questions and i'm sorry we didn't get to answer more. i'm going to turn it over to selena will be closing out ourprogram . >> what a great intro. thank you for taking questions. most of our prizewinners have been featured on book break, a free builder letterman online program where authors discusstheir books in depth . ifyou enjoyed today's program and want to learn more we encourage you to see recordings of those sessions . these review those while we drop in the chat . we're p.also sharing links to our shop.org page or you can purchase abraham lincoln in his time as well as copies of all the finalists books. the guilder letterman institute at the whole range of public programs and resources for teachers, students and history books. we hope you will check out our website for more

information on upcoming programs and to get further engage with the institutes. in particular we like to invite everyone here tonight to join us one month from today for our annual gala company online for the first m time . you can learn more arabout the gala group to chat. lastly, we like to thank our donors who support allows us to provide this program for free. this prize helps ensure civil war scholarships are situated in the mainstream of american history education and we are deeply grateful for your support. if you enjoy tonight's program and want to support the guilder lemon prize can do so through the lincoln in the chat. with that thank you for joining us and congratulations again to professor david reynolds and professor liz barrett. hope everyone has a nice evening and we hope to see you atanother event soon . goodbye everyone.

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>> c-span shop.org deceased online store. there's a collection of products, browse to see what's new. your purchase will support our nonprofit operations and you have time to order the congressional directory with cup contact information for the biden administration. go toc-span shop.org . >> good evening, i'm with the new york historical society's president and ceo and i am thrilled to welcome you to tonight virtual program with "the words that made us: america's constitutional conversation, 1760-1840". i'm grateful this evening for the wonderful support of je mc realty for htsponsoring the program tonight. i'm also delighted to welcome these guests and thank you for your great partnership. before i introduce our