30Days30Poets: Robert Hayden’s “Frederick Douglass”
Robert Hayden’s 1947 sonnet “Frederick Douglass” pays tribute to a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln. Like yesterday’s poem, it asks why, and how, great men should be remembered.
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April 25, 2013 -
April 24, 2013 30Days30Poets: Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The Master”
Like several of our earlier poems, Edwin Arlington Robinson’s 1909 tribute to Abraham Lincoln, “The Master,” also takes up the theme of national memory. In the poem, Robinson, a lover of irony, recalls the ridicule Lincoln once endured in light of Americans’ newfound appreciation for their 16th president after his successful prosecution of the Civil War and tragic assassination.
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March 4, 2013 A Very Peculiar God: Reading Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
On March 4, 1865—just a month before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox—Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. Invoking theological speculation and quoting Scripture, he offered an interpretation of the meaning of the war, which enabled him to summon Americans to a new and more difficult public purpose. In this essay, Caitrin Nicol, managing editor of The New Atlantis, reveals the depths of Lincoln’s address. Download … Read more »
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February 1, 2013 Celebrating Black History Month
Today officially begins the annual celebration of Black History Month, when we as a nation set aside the month of February to celebrate contributions made by African Americans and to examine the legacy left by these civil rights leaders—for today and tomorrow. In the coming weeks, we’ll be using the opportunity to highlight some great teaching resources and primary sources you can use in your classroom to teach … Read more »
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January 28, 2013 Today in history: Lincoln delivers Lyceum Address
Yesterday marked the 175th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, which he delivered on January 27, 1838, to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. The Lyceum was an educational civic organization that hosted public speeches and debates, and Lincoln’s remarks were informed by the recent lynchings of suspected gamblers and murderers (which he references in the speech) and the shooting of the abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton, … Read more »
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January 25, 2013 Leon Kass and Walter Berns discuss Spielberg’s “Lincoln”
As Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln continues to win accolades and Oscar nominations from movie critics, we bring you another review of the film—though instead of focusing on the specifics of Spielberg’s filming or Daniel Day Lewis’s performance, our critics are much more interested in Abraham Lincoln himself. In December, WSPWH editor Leon R. Kass joined AEI scholar and professor emeritus at Georgetown University Walter Berns to … Read more »
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January 3, 2013 “If my name goes into history, it will be for this act…”
Earlier this week marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which Abraham Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation declared that the roughly 3.1 million slaves held in bondage in the “States and parts of States wherein the people thereof [...] are this day in rebellion against the United States [...] are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including … Read more »
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December 14, 2012 Second Inaugural essay contest
On January 21, President Barack Obama will take the oath as President for the second time. To help students think about the event, the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago is hosting an essay contest for Illinois high school students to create their own versions of the second inaugural address.
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December 12, 2012 A White (House) Christmas
Over at the Washington, Jefferson, and Madison Institute blog, J. David Gowdy points out a great resource for students interested in learning about Christmas at the White House: WhiteHouseChristmasCards.com. The website has collected accounts of the Christmas celebrations held by each president—from George Washington to Barack Obama—and provides examples of Christmas cards and other Christmas messages offered by each president and his family.
Here’s an excerpt that … Read more »
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December 10, 2012 Remarkable Radical: Thaddeus Stevens
Writing in Humanities Magazine, Steve Moyer takes a look at the life and legacy of Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania. Played by Tommy Lee Jones in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Stevens was a leader of the Radical Republicans and an ardent abolitionist who spent much of his life defending the rights of blacks—both in Congress and in his home town, where his home became a station on the Underground … Read more »
