Lincoln 1860

Lincoln 1860

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Lecturing On Mr. Lincoln

Greetings to the readers of The Abraham Lincoln Blog. It's been a while since I've updated this forum with a new post, thanks to a busy summer professionally and personally. In addition to writing this blog, I also edit the "Honest Abraham Lincoln" page on Facebook (http://facebook.com/honestabrahamlincoln) and write Lincoln-related "tweets" on Twitter (Mr_Lincoln). It's difficult to keep up with everything, but I do my best. The Facebook page has 615 fans at this writing, while the Twitter feed is followed by over 2,200 people.

In addition to using social media to help educate others about Lincoln's life and legacy, I have recently begun lecturing to public and private groups about different aspects of Lincoln. In recent months, I've spoken on his Inaugural Journey to Washington in 1861; his assassination and funeral train journey back to Springfield in 1865; and his struggles to find competent generals during the Civil War.

My next scheduled lecture will be about Lincoln's numerous ties to my home state of Ohio. While he of course never lived in the Buckeye State, he gave speeches in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. Ohioans Salmon B. Chase and Edwin M. Stanton served in his cabinet. Ohio generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan helped to win the Civil War. And Cleveland and Columbus hosted two of Lincoln's funerals. Lincoln antagonists Benjamin Wade and Clement Vallandigham also hailed from Ohio. Ohio was crucial in Lincoln's life and I look forward to lecturing on this topic.

The lecture is scheduled for November 5, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Granville Public Library in Granville, OH, about 25 miles east of Columbus. All of you are invited to this free public lecture. Why not drop by and learn a little more about Mr. Lincoln? I would love to meet you.

2 comments:

lwthorpe said...

What do you think about the book 1861 by Adam Goodheart? Perhaps you could comment on:
1. Absence of general education - middle school, high school - concerning the Wide Awakes;
2. Power of the Wide Awakes as liberals, in any sense, to shape the 1860 election and contribute to genuine fear in the south over the impact of Lincoln's election, even though he was steadfastly silent during the campaign; and
3. Appropriation of the term Wide Awakes by a conservative Republican blog site.
lwthorpe

Geoff Elliott said...

Hello!

Thanks for your suggestions about potential blog posts and/or lectures.

The book "1861: Civil War Awakening" is an exceptional work, one of the best I've ever read about lesser-known events leading up to the war, and the early days of it as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Goodheart's writing is superb.


The Wide Awakes were an interesting phenomenon, a true grassroots movement in their time, unlike the faux "grassroots" Tea Party movement of ours.

I don't know much about the Wide Awakes other than basic facts, but they do seem to have caused the southerners to further tremble in fear about Lincoln.

As for conservatives who appropriate the term "Wide Awakes", and especially the appropriation of Mr. Lincoln himself, they are misguided in their beliefs that Lincoln was a conservative.

 
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