The Brownsville Affair through the Lens of Lincoln

By Callie Hawkins
Lesson plans contributed by Paul LaRue
Paul LaRue, a teacher at Washington High School in Washington Court House, Ohio, was looking for a way to provide context and relevance for his students’ study of United States history that would extend his classroom discussions to include people and events occurring beyond the parameters of his [...]

Dear Mr. President…

The following is a letter sent by the Director of President Lincoln’s Cottage to President Obama
March 26, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
 
Dear Mr. President:
I took particular interest in a comment you made during your recent 60 Minutes interview regarding your difficulty in escaping the Presidential “bubble” to spend [...]

“Did Lincoln blaze a trail for Obama?”

The UK’s Chanel 4 News recently filmed an interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin at President Lincoln’s Cottage as part of a report by Jon Snow on how “Barack Obama’s inauguration is suffused with references to the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.”
The 7 minute report aired on Monday, January 20th:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/did+lincoln+blaze+a+trail+for+obama/2906812

In Town for the Inauguration?

Are you in town for the Presidential Inauguration and looking for something to do?  Are you dreading the crowds on the National Mall?  
To escape the chaos of downtown Washington, just as President Lincoln did, visit President Lincoln’s Cottage, located on a hilltop in northwest Washington, D.C.  The site is closed January 20th, but is open all other [...]

“Lincoln’s Intelligent Patriotism” Lecture this Thursday

The Catholic University of America is hosting a lecture series as part of their spring 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial Semester.  The first lecture in the series, “Lincoln’s Intelligent Patriotism” by Dr. Joseph Fornieri, with take place this Thursday, January 15, 2009, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.  This program is free and open to the public, and [...]

Lincoln and Obama, Poets

The Atlantic Online published an article by David Barber about Obama’s invocation of Lincoln time and again and a comparison of their dabbles in poetry.  The article is well worth a read.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812u/lincoln-obama-poetry

Team of Rivals Revisited

By Frank Milligan
Historian James Oakes, the author of a wonderful new book that I have just finished reading and heartily recommend entitled The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics, has questioned in today’s November 20 New York Times, both the uniqueness and the cohesiveness of President Lincoln’s [...]

Passion, Politics, and Finance

By Erin Mast
Watching President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech tonight, it was not altogether surprising to hear him invoke a quote by Lincoln.  “As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, ‘We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”  (First Inaugural, March 4, 1861).  Numerous presidents [...]

Clinton Offers to Debate Obama in Lincoln-Douglas Style

By Erin Carlson Mast
Yesterday, Senator Clinton challenged Senator Obama to a ”Lincoln-Douglas style debate,” where the candidates ask each other questions rather than having a moderator pose questions to each candidate.  Although the Lincoln-Douglas debates were reprinted during the presidential campaign of 1860, the debates originally took place in 1858 during Illinois race for the United States [...]