Eighth grade American history educator Eric Langhorst reviews the book Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President, edited by Brian Lamb and Susan Swain, suggesting it for classroom use during the Lincoln Bicentennial and to compliment the 2009 Presidential inauguration.

Jay Winik, author of the Lincoln biography April 1865: The Month That Saved America, looks at how Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee handled Lee's surrender at Appomattox; and considers the possible consequences if the surrender had not gone through or had proceeded poorly.

David Herbert Donald, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of American Civilization Emeritus at Harvard University, talks about the qualities and experience that made Abraham Lincoln both an exceptional and an unlikely national leader.

Eighth grade American history educator Eric Langhorst discusses two books—The Political Cartoons of the Whispering Gallery by the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and The Lines are Drawn: Political Cartoons of the Civil War, edited by Kristen M. Smith—that he uses to give students an understanding that Abraham Lincoln was viewed in many different lights during his own time.

This audio tour follows the opening attack on the Confederate right flank during the Battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. The focal point of the attack and the tour is the Burnside Bridge, one of the most famous Civil War landmarks. The Confederate defenders managed to hold out here for more than four hours against repeated Union assaults.

After more than nine months of trench warfare around Petersburg, VA, Union commander U.S. Grant ordered an all-out attack against Robert E. Lee's lines at dawn April 2, 1865. This audio tour of Pamplin Historical Park's Breakthrough Trail covers a critical area of that assault, and offers a good look at part of the well-preserved Confederate defensive line.

The Union soldiers defending this pile of giant boulders just west of Little Round Top found themselves on the far left flank of the Federal line July 2, 1863. They were the first to take on Confederate Gen. James Longstreet's assault that day. This audio tour covers the fight for Devil's Den and the true story behind one of the Civil War's most famous photographs.

Christy Keeler of Clark County School District, NV, discusses the creation and use of digital stories in history classrooms. She presents an example of digital storytelling, "At Lincoln's Hand"; and looks at how students can use primary sources and research combined with emotive narration, music, and sound effects to craft effective digital stories.

John Lloyd of California State Polytechnic University looks at the transition of the ideological and political conflicts that led to the Civil War and that continued during the war from conflict over the maintenance of the Union to conflict over the existence and continuation of slavery.

John Lloyd of California State Polytechnic University looks at the political and ideological conflicts between the North and South that led up to the Civil War, including the extension of slavery into the territories and debate over the Fugitive Slave Law.