The discerning history student ought to be curious about the ways in which Lincoln has and has not earned his exalted place in American history.

In order to assess the extent to Lincoln was “the greatest” president, “a military genius”, “a master of the English language”, “a true American hero”, etc. we are going to:

1. Define great leadership
2. Read documents and answer questions about Lincoln’s presidency with a focus on the following themes:
   • Lincoln & His Cabinet
   • Lincoln & Slavery
   • Lincoln as Orator
   • Lincoln as Commander in Chief
   • Lincoln & Congress
3. Analyze these articles in small groups, then present findings to the class
4. Based on our reading, assess the extent to which Lincoln earned his exalted place as a great leader in American history.

Lincoln and his Cabinet: Listen to this short interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin and read this Times book review of Goodwin’s Team of Rivals by James MacPherson

Lincoln & Slavery: Listen to this interview with Eric Foner

Lincoln’s Oratory: Read Abraham Lincoln: A Man of His Words by Ted Sorensen and listen to this interview with Ronald White about Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln as Commander in Chief: Read this book review of James MacPherson’s Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief and Lincoln’s letter to McClellan

Lincoln and Congress: Read this review of Earnest Men: Republicans of the Civil War Senate

There are reading questions for all five themes. Get them here and respond thoughtfully.

If this discussion of Lincoln is of interest, you are cordially invited to:

• Check out this video panel discussion of “Looking for Lincoln: In His Time and In Ours“
• Watch this video of Foner on Lincoln and His World
• Watch this video of Richard Cawardine dissecting Lincoln 
• Deal with this tough question, Was Lincoln a Racist?
• Read Time Magazine’s Presidents’ Day Tribute to Lincoln

Shedding Lincoln Mantle (Foner)

Here’s an FYI: “Facial hair was associated with a few things: It was associated with a new idea of manliness. It was associated with new ideas about religion, a new passion for Old Testament religion and a sense that you were stepping back into the righteous days of the Hebrew prophets. It was associated also with militarism, because it really became popular in Anglo-American culture after the Crimean War. And finally, and I think most interestingly, it was identified with radical nationalist politics in Europe. Beards really took off in places like France, Italy, and Austria, that were undergoing liberal revolutions. I think it bespeaks a sense that both the Union and Confederate soldiers felt that they were nationalist revolutionaries.”

Christian Ortschig’s weekdays are spent working in Germany’s social insurance administration. But on any given Saturday, he might be leading Union troops into battle against the Confederate Army.

Ortschig stands in a field overseeing the military drills of a couple dozen men and women as they prepare for the afternoon’s big battles at the Wild West theme park “El Dorado,” which is located on the outskirts of Templin about 50 miles north of Berlin.

“This is like a film, like theatre,” says Ortschig. “I am not a Union boy. I am not a Rebel boy. I am a German. But when I put on this uniform, I play a Union officer.

Like Ortschig’s Scottish uniform, a lot of the history here is an odd mishmash of fact, fancy, and convenience. Men meticulously dressed in period costumes from the 1860s mingle with soldiers in uniforms from the US Revolutionary War. Conversation seems to focus on the physical trappings – the clothes and the weapons – not difficult issues like slavery or the war’s staggering body count.

Such events happening about once a month in Germany do feel a little bit like drama camp for adults. But most of the people say they come for the history, not just the costumes.

“We know that 200,000 Germans served in the US Civil War. That’s more than 10 percent of the Union soldiers,” Ortschig says. “So this is our history too.”

Ute Frevert is the head of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She says the choice for Germans to re-enact the Civil War battles may seem odd on the surface, but she explains it this way: “It’s safe.” In Germany, it’s taboo to glorify anything military-related since World War II. So for Germans who want a taste of the pageantry of battle, the 19th-century American conflict fits the bill.

“It’s safe enough for Germans to re-enact the US Civil War because it is so far away,” says Frevert. “It is not something you associate with Germany.”

When asked why Rebels typically outnumber the Yankees at these re-enactment weekends, Frevert says that might be Germans’ sympathy for the losers, or because the Confederates’ costumes are fancier.

“We also think about how it is cruel that brothers fought against each other. I have friends on the other side in the South and I would never shoot on them in real life,” says Melchurs. “This is only a game.”

And it’s the kind of game where the battles end not in bloodshed – but with German beers around a fire.

Read full text at The Local

Our alienation was neither achieved in independence, nor stumbled upon by accident, but produced by American design. The belief that the Civil War wasn’t for us was the result of the country’s long search for a narrative that could reconcile white people with each other, one that avoided what professional historians now know to be true: that one group of Americans attempted to raise a country wholly premised on property in Negroes, and that another group of Americans, including many Negroes, stopped them. In the popular mind, that demonstrable truth has been evaded in favor of a more comforting story of tragedy, failed compromise, and individual gallantry. For that more ennobling narrative, as for so much of American history, the fact of black people is a problem.

Ta Nehisi Coates tries to answer this vexing question

Historian Garry Wills does a magnificent job of unpacking Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Paul Revere’s Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Voluntaries, Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some really cool radio shorts. Fascinating!

See the slideshow

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise to greatness is as complex as it is compelling. Oxford University historian Richard Carwardine examines Lincoln both in his dramatic political journey and in his nation-shaping White House years.

John Swansburg of Slate blogs his Civil War roadtrip with some buddies.

The New York Times Opinionator section offers some reflections.

Foner traces the evolution of Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. He explains how Lincoln’s changing thoughts about slavery — and the role of freed slaves — mirrored America’s own transformation.

Foner is always a splendid interview (38 minutes)