tonight it is my honor to join you to present the 2020 lincoln prize onin the half of dick gilr and lou lehrmanished 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 ver

we owe this to lou lehrman who 30 years ago working with the professor at gettysburg college had theto create a 50,000-dollar book prize at the time when the pulitzer prize was only 5,000. the boldness of their vision has shaped the field of history and more broadly the landscape of the book prizes ever since. when he died three weeks short ofay his 80th birthday but we wl hear a message tonight delivered by his son as many in the audience know, lou lehrman is not only a successful businessman, philanthropist and civic leader. he is himself a historian and widely published author whose many books include l peoria, 208 and lincoln and churchill statesmenr in war in 2018. together, the cofounder of the gilder lehrman institute and shaping force behind the chcollection which today lies at the heart of the programs and resources that the institute provides to the network of 29,000 schools and more than a 7 million k-12 students. with a sense of profound gratitude for all that he has helped to make o possible i turn now to his son, thomas lehrman, a trustee of the institute, for a brief m