world comes to lincoln. we have had foreign eyes at the beginning of the 20th century, and richard later in the 20th century, and we have had politicians like sidney blumenthal and george mcgovern right books on lincoln, and a journalist, you, so what does a journalists' eyes bring fresh to the lincoln story? >> i think in particular the time in which i wrote this, you know, this book was written primarily during the trump presidency when i was running reporters, covering the white house as editor and chief of the daily beast, and i moved over to cnn full time as a anchor, and trump -- if you believe a person's character is the single most quality in a president, there's a clear contrast between lincoln and trump. to that extent, going home every day on the weekends and vacations and spending time with lincoln, which itself is a pleasure, was medicine. lincoln's somebody whose personality, as i see it, is based on the qualities of empathy and honesty and humor and humility, and i believe a person's leadershi

and spending time with lincoln. which itself is a pleasure was medicine. lincoln's somebody who's personality as i see it is based on the qualities of empathy and honesty and humor and humility. and i believe that a person's leadership style flows out of essential qualities of their personality that become principles and then are finally expressed in politics and policies. and and i i think just the example link can set. just trying to empathize with his political opponents refusing to demonize people who he disagreed with using humor and and logic and scripture to try to depolarize debates and to you know combine moderation with moral courage, but also to not confuse moral courage with moral superiority. those are extraordinary qualities in his own time. they remain rare today, but i think that's precisely why he remains such a touchstone and had the capacity to reunite the nation at the most divided that's ever been and why we need to listen to lincoln's wisdom again now. well, certainly. and i you've just covered

and so lincoln agrees and lincoln decides to wait until there's a union victory the problem is lincoln's generals can't get their act together. and so there's a major loss at manassas and i in august and then there's not a victory until september of september 17th at antietam. and so while this is going on while lincoln is waiting for this victory to come he does several things to try to prepare the white racist north the white racist electorate in the north for what is coming. he knows he's going to issue an emancipation proclamation. he knows he's got to wait, but he might as well begin to prepare and shape public sentiment on this issue. so he does several things one of which is he writes a very famous letter to horace freely where he says my paramount object in this struggle is to save the union and it's not to either save her to destroy slavery. he's trying to get people on board if if you are willing to fight for the union think about how ending slavery might help do that and then he also calls in this black delegation and he brings us stenographer into the room to write down every

and chase campaigns for lincoln in the famous lincoln douglas 1858 campaign there in illinois. i was so fascinated by that that i you know, i hadn't planned to but i went to springfield and spent several days. just reading newspapers trying to find more about what chase said and did while he was in in illinois in october of 1858 was there much there was a fertile ground. um, they have the newspapers it's a wonderful library there graham lincoln presidential library museum indeed the newspapers didn't have much to say about chase i think because it was kind of right on the eve of the election and so they were less focused on reporting what people said and more on the kind of last-minute details. so it was a little disappointing, but but i did find some stuff that's that's in the book. like you were in mecca in springfield leads to us at the abraham lincoln book shop. so yeah. um let's get to the republican party is formation. what were his contributions in the formation of that party? was it more local or regional or did it really encompass national the national republican party

including lincoln. he and lincoln collaborate by way of letter long before they meet one another face to face. and chase campaigns for lincoln in the famous lincoln douglas 1858 campaign i went to springfield and spent several days reading newspapers trying to find more about what chase said and did while he was in illinois in october of 1858. >> was there much there? was it fertile ground? >> they have the newspapers. it's a wonderful library. >> so lincoln presidential library museum? >> indeed. i think because it was kind of right on the eve of the election. so they were less focused on reporting what people said and more on the kind of last-minute details. so it was a little disappointing, but i did find some stuff that's in the book. >> to us at the book shops, let's get to the republican party. what were his contributions in the formation of that party? was it more local or regional or really encompass the national republican party as it formed? >> i would say it was national. the republican party

a different lincoln ice. yeah, i know but but when you spend time just like reading his daily correspondence during the war, you know, most of it is is kind of nitty-gritty stuff about raising the money or moving the troops. and so relatively little of it is this how should we say political stuff about, you know, gee wouldn't i make a better candidate than than lincoln and i think it's particularly telling that in february of 64 when because of a kind of a leak of a document the pomeroy circular his candidacy implodes. he writes a letter to lincoln and says look, you know if you want me to resign i'm happy to resign and lincoln writes back a generous letter saying no you're doing a great job as secretary of the treasury keep doing it and he does for another four months and then again, i hadn't appreciated until i did the research for this book. how much hard campaign work chase does for lincoln in the fall of 1864? um you want manners? he gives speeches. he there are letters from chase to friends saying, you

and leadership in lincoln. i'm pleased to report that my intuition is that we will have many more of these wonderful gatherings. and so we have to think historically and in thinking back i wanted to say jonathan white gave us a wonderful bulletin, so look at what the topics were and in doing it. i see that the chief borrowed my punching lincoln for his collection, and maybe it's down in starkville because i gave my first talk here in 2003 lincoln our mortal president, but more seriously it was the scholars who were so supportive of the idea of bringing lincoln and his world alive. they got me started on my lincoln journey and we discussed in the prelude that there can be new meanings to exploring these topics seeing the spielberg film in 2021 and reexamining where we are in the lincoln world in 2021 is so important and i have the great honor of introducing a dynamic duo of lincoln scholarship. craig simons is a former professor of u-verse naval college a former professor and chair of history at the us naval aca

as soon as he saw lincoln sit. ing a chair way too small and legs out he saw every line in his face and saw the worry and kindness of the man before he even spoke and he came out and said frederick douglass, take a seat and they talked. what amaze $him was that lincoln listened and understood the perception of the two and what they were up against and they understood each other and all of those preconceptions melted away. they would meet three more times and last time on the podium for reelection, guess who helped lincoln get reelected, lincoln douglass. guess who told him to fight for freedom? frederick douglass. and he said now pay them the same and when they get caught, treated the same as white guys. he understood where lincoln was coming from. and i thought we could enjoy a quote, a few of them. this is actually the tape. i'll finish up with a few quotes. this is a look at the book that maybe you're all going to get. >> the american civil war, over 600,000 would die over the course of four years. but the unite

lincoln and frederick douglass. now in our next presenter's book, he tells the little known story of how two american heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship and how that process changes the entire course of history. i am pleased talking to the stage new york times the best-selling author and fox news host mr. brian kilmeade. as much as as much as i enjoy the standing ovation when you start with a standing ovation, you'd only go backwards. so that's what i worry. so i appreciate everybody being here tonight. i've never been invited to a book festival. so to be invited was great to have a book ready to go with fantastic, and i'm so glad everything lined up to be here in a beautiful saturday, and there's no kentucky basketball scrimmage that's keeping all of you busy. that would allow you to show up. but i think we have a few things in common. i don't care about politics. i think we all love the country. we also know where we come from has not been perfect. it's not been a straight line, but we always get

lincoln's first 14 yearsworth frederick douglass had a lot worse.ould escape to establish his freedom but he wasn't satisfied with that . he would want freedom for himself and freedom for all. >> douglas would relentlessly continue to selfeducate and be mentored by abolitionists . start a newspaper, be a lecturer known around the world. >> as broad as america was he wanted to make a stand here and an almost biblical terms he stalled the promise of america which is hard to do when you're being beaten so douglass's gift was he never left the slaveowners owning him . >> the 1850s as douglas and lincoln began to rise in stature america was coming apart. the northand south were diverging on the issue of slavery. status quo would not stand pavingthe way for the emergence of ln fa new party, t republican party . seizing the opportunity of lawyers from the midwest abraham lincoln .>> by the time he arrived at the white house the state had left the union so secession was not an option. the war was on. he took hover a divided country and did he know what he w

lincoln was smitten with douglas.incolnn released the emancipation and douglas traveled for the first time. the most prolific unit of the infantry. >> it included his own two sons. i'm amazed how important the american flag was because it was so important to defend our flag and our nation. lincoln and douglas would meet a total of three times face to face and helped lincoln when the reelection. douglass would be the special guest. the union would go on to win tha war free from the race and allow the nation to reunite.o with so much work left to do, john wilkes booth assassination robert douglas and america of its greatest president at a time of our greatest need. frederick douglass will outlive by 30 years saying until 1872 his major mark on american historyy came alongside the 16th president. individually, they were great men. together they were unstoppable. it might be something that would give a perspective today. to give you a few quotes -- i kind of went over this a little bit, this is the verbatim and some of th

redeemer president and lincoln emancipation proclamation and abraham lincoln, man of ideas, 2009, lincoln a short introduction, 2009 as well. then a look at the civil war and reconstruction in fateful lighting followed by gettysburg, the last invasion is how allen guelzo looks at the book in 2013, are redeeming the great emancipator in 2016, reconstruction of concise history came out in 2018 and his most recent from a different point of view robert e. lee, a life. if we could allen guelzo, let's go to the year of 1863 which kicked off with the emancipation proclamation very tumultuous year in the nation's history but i want to quote from your book redeeming the great emancipator, quote, the emancipation proclamation which was delivered on january 1st, 1863 is surely the unhappiest of all of abraham lincoln's great presidential papers. that was the one that jumped out to me. [laughter] >> that was a deliberate and provocative strategy on my part. and i say unhappiest basically because while we learned the gettysburg, people memorize the gettysburg address which is 272 words and we add ore

lincoln cannot afford to make that happen. so we lost the four border states what is he trying to do? is he trying to cheat he's trying to protect from a legal challenge that is difficult to imagine from chief justice. and with this unhappy reputation so there are serious reasons why it is what it is and then to understand abraham lincoln and composing the emancipation proclamation wass more shrewd and if the emancipation proclamation reads like a bill of lading, then it is for freedom headed to the port that still awaiting you can rejoice in. host: we will come back to 1863 that we will hear fromon our viewers let's begin with los angeles. good morning. >>caller. >> all of the books are fascinating and that we are watching at 11:00 o'clock our time. so one review of his book said tothat he had written a revisionist history and i am curious to have him explain what is revisionist history and i would love to hear on that.. host: you know what that was? >> it was the book on generally. >> in a sense he has already provided the a

so lincoln needs these guys. he needs siegel because having siegel in uniform helps lincoln win the german-american vote. having been butler an important command helps secure lincoln, the support of new england democrats or former democrats. so ben butler is important too. and this leads to where i can dismisses these subsidiary campaigns and say they're not going to do anything much because both guys performed at the level we've come to expect from political generals and thus both subsidiary campaigns were complete failures. butler didn't take richmond, didn't take petersburg, got his command bottled up in the end of a peninsula between the james and appomattox rivers and that was that. the confederates were able to contain him with minimum force and detach the rest of their troops to lee. siegel also failed in the shenandoah valley. and so these two subsidiary campaigns that had the potential to help grant a lot -- it's going to all be on grant and the army of the potomac which he's not commanding but he's supe

i'm talking about the lincoln the lincoln. yeah, the lincoln library museum i was recruited. gosh, and well in 2001. and the real people the real visionaries and they were visionaries. i mean through remarkable. you want evidence of what one person? with an idea can do i've said this before in springfield woman named julie cellini. who dreamed of she had been involved with the illinois state historical library as a trustee of sorts on the state historic preservation committee, but her dream was. to create a world class lincoln library slash museum and against all odds she succeeded. now you know. in retrospect there might have been a different ways to to go about it. but that in no way diminishes from you know the extraordinary accomplishment. and she had obviously can't one of help and obviously a lot of people gave on a money and the state gave a lot and the federal government got involved. i mean, you know but if julie so many had not. step forward they would not be. a lincoln library museum, i what? i speak very frankly here. what i was naive about when i when i said, yes

so people had said to lincoln you ought to cancel this election and lincoln said no. we're fighting. to preserve self-government. we're fighting against the idea that if you lose the election you get to start a war and see if it can win it with the war when you couldn't win it in an election and we're fighting against that kind of idea. and if we were to postpone the election because of the war. we've already lost the cause we were fighting for. yeah, we postpone the election so we say in power. but we were fighting to maintain the id of self-government so we can't do that. we're going to hold the election exactly a scheduled we're going to do exactly what the constitution says. right but politics is tricky and how's that going to affect grants campaign? well for one thing it means there's going to be a lot of scrutiny. it's going to be important. but another thing and i've already told you about the idea of political generals. that these are generals. who are actually politicians because we can't trust the experts. i'm not saying that but i mean the people kind of th

lincoln? we don't want to quite park on the 20th 21st century, but some of you here know my personal story of how i became interested in the presidency in the white house's my dear mother took me to see john f kennedy campaigning and our hometown of louisville, kentucky in october of 1960. just one month before he was elected and i always start with that story because my mother was not a political scientist or historian. she was out in the suburbs of louisville raising baby boomer children, and but was very well read and and a wonderful grammarian and a champion speller and and but she just was drawn to him we're catholic he was the same generation. he was a world war two veteran is it was my father but the next memory i have a i think i was about six was being taken to hodgenville, kentucky to see lincoln's birthplace. so one one moment taken to see an almost president one from some time before and then a couple years later my dad took me out to the airport in louisville to see ex-president e

. >> dole, lincoln. and you know, i look back and i say -- you know, i don't look back a lot, but, you know, of course you -- where did the time go? i can't believe i -- i can't believe i ate the whole thing. and i learned a lot, and i'm glad i did it. and there's certainly no value in even if i had regrets in pining away for a different course. it's funny. i look back now. it's funny how your life does come part meant liez. there was this speech-writing phase which kind of morphed into the libraries, and after -- when i left lincoln in 2006, came back here, and as you know, sort of cobbled together teaching at george mason and some work here at c-span on some long series and worked and worked and worked on the rockefeller. so i can't complain. >> let me go to a completely different subject because it happens to be in the news as we're talking, when we're recording this. but i've heard you over the years talk about the popes. >> oh, yeah. i tell you, i have catholic friends who tell me i'm a better catho

lincoln. some of you here know my personal story of how i became interested in the presidency and the white house as my dear mother took me to see john f. kennedy campaigning in our hometown in october of 1960, just one month before had he was elected. and i always start with that story because my mother was not a political scientist or a historian. she was out in the suburbs of louisville raising baby boomer children but was very well read and a wonderful champion speller and she was drawn to him we were catholic. he was a world war ii veteran. the next memory was being taken to kentucky to see lincoln's birthplace. so one moment taken to see an almost president, one from some time before and then a couple years later, my dad took me out to the airport to see ex-president eisenhower come through. he was campaigning in the 1962 midterms. so came from a very bipartisan household. but i only say that when i went at age 6 to see the presidential site of the birthplace of abraham lincoln, as a 6-y

well the lincoln collection. you know lincoln's papers have been scattered. over the years the largest collection of presidential papers is at the library of congress as you know, but so it wouldn't be a presidential library in in that quantitative sense nevertheless the basically the basis of it was the old illinois state historical library which told as the name suggests the history of illinois and then critically there would be attached a world-class state-of-the-art museum now that actually only recognized the reality of the presidential library system where 99% of the people who visit. never set foot in the archives. they go to the museum. and it seems like julie was not. in any way limited by all the rules and regulations that the federal government imposes. upon the current library system so in essence she had a wide open field to operate. and they hired and it was very much a grassroots initiative but very very much. the singular vision of of her and a handful of other people. so anyway, they hired brc which is an exhibits firm. which is i understand