In February 2009, America celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet's politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. Each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents. This is a guidebook to what is new and what is noteworthy in this unfolding story — a gathering of fresh scholarship by Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted terr ... More

In February 2009, America celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet's politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. Each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents. This is a guidebook to what is new and what is noteworthy in this unfolding story — a gathering of fresh scholarship by Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates — including those about their own landmark works. Here, historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln's legacy — from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln's private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime. The eighteen essays explore every corner of Lincoln's world — religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination. In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in this study give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.