From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

"Professor Matthew Pinsker will lead an exploration of Lincoln's life and presidency. Discussion topics include Lincoln's self-made rise to power and the leading national challenges of the wartime period, including emancipation, civil liberties and military strategy. Participants will hold selected discussions on location at the Gettysburg battlefield and the Lincoln Cottage in Washington."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

"When Americans are asked to rank their presidents, Abraham Lincoln almost always comes out at the top. But why? Sometimes, the reason is that he freed the slaves . . . or that he saved the Union . . . or that he was a great war president . . . or that he was a master of words. All of these are true, but these truths don't get at the man behind these truths. Although Lincoln had next-to-nothing in the way of formal education, he possessed a natural intellectual curiosity, a voracious appetite for reading, and a passion for ideas. He was a lawyer, a politician, a fixer. But he was more than just a lawyer, a politician, or a fixer. Lincoln's curiosity . . . his reading . . . his ideas . . . led him into the vortex of the great clashes of ideas in the nineteenth century about religion, politics, Romanticism, race, and slavery. In this seminar, we will see how Lincoln was shaped by three important issues in his day:

• The clash of religion and the Enlightenment
• The offense of slavery
• The fight for the survival of democracy

This seminar will be an exploration of Lincoln's mind—of the great intellectual problems he faced, of the books he read, of the ideas he defended, and of the kind of democracy he thought was worth saving. And at the end, we will come to know Lincoln, not just as the greatest of presidents, but as a man of great ideas as well."

This all-day professional development workshop for K-12 educators marks the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Presenters include noted Lincoln authors Harold Holzer, Matthew Pinsker, and Douglas Wilson. Participants will receive various classroom materials and will be introduced to a series of new web-based resources on the Civil War era. Co-sponsors include the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy (PennCORD).

Abraham Lincoln will stand at the centre of the seminar, though less as a biographical subject than as a prism for exploring key aspects of his age. The themes and topics to be addressed include slavery and the Old South; the abolitionist impulse and the broadening antislavery movement; party political realignment and the sectional crisis of the 1850s; evangelicalism and politics; the election of 1860, the secession of the Lower South, and the coming of war; wartime leadership, political and military; the Civil War 'home front'; emancipation; the elements of Confederate defeat and Union victory; and the meaning of the war for American nationalism.

"Abraham Lincoln will stand at the centre of the seminar, though less as a biographical subject than as a prism for exploring key aspects of his age. The themes and topics to be addressed include slavery and the Old South; the abolitionist impulse and the broadening antislavery movement; party political realignment and the sectional crisis of the 1850s; evangelicalism and politics; the election of 1860, the secession of the Lower South, and the coming of war; wartime leadership, political and military; the Civil War 'home front'; emancipation; the elements of Confederate defeat and Union victory; and the meaning of the war for American nationalism."

"With the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln Douglas Debates this year, it is important to review the debates for a Senate campaign in one state that reached national attention and gave Abraham Lincoln national recognition. This workshop will examine how debates between candidates have changed from thorough, thoughtful, and civilized debates to the negative, critical, and personal-attack debates of the present. Educators will focus on the art of the debate and how to present to their students a debate forum using the Lincoln-Douglas Debates as a guide for persuasion, information, and presentation."

"An NCHE team of Matt Pinsker, Al Jacobs, and Jim McNeill will explore the topic of Abolition and the Emancipation Proclamation and Taking Sides: The Confederacy at this colloquium."

"A study of the sectional conflict beginning with the nullification crisis. The course will not only examine the political, social and economic developments in the period leading to the Civil War, but will emphasize the political thought of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John C. Calhoun."

"This course will examine military aspects of the war, as well as political developments during it, including the political history of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. The course also examines the post-war Amendments and the Reconstruction era."

"Even though the powers of the American Executive are controlled and limited, extraordinary acts of statesmanship are possible. This seminar examines two presidents who demonstrated extraordinary political leadership. We will examine these statesmen and the political circumstances in which their prudence revealed itself."