LINCOLN FORUM XXXI: “LINCOLN AND THE FOUNDERS” (Kevin M. Levin)
As America celebrates its 250th birthday in 2026, The Lincoln Forum will convene at Gettysburg for its 31st annual symposium to consider how the American Revolution—its leaders, the battles they fought, and the documents they wrote—inspired Lincoln’s leadership before and during the Civil War. Unlike any previous Forum, this year’s symposium will begin one day early—November 15—and will conclude on November 17 so that attendees can stay in Gettysburg at their option for the town’s America250 celebration the following day.
This year’s roster of speakers features many Forum favorites, including legendary actor Sam Waterston, who starred as Lincoln in the TV miniseries Gore Vidal’s Lincoln and as the voice of Lincoln in Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War; Matthew Pinsker on his acclaimed new book, Boss Lincoln; two-time Lincoln Prize winner James Oakes on the legality (or illegality) of the Emancipation Proclamation; biographer Walter Stahr on William Howard Taft and the Lincolns; and best-selling novelist Jeff Shaara, whose newest work of historical fiction brings Abraham Lincoln to life.
Making his Forum debut, historian and “Civil War Memory” blogger Kevin Levin will discuss his new biography of Col. Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers. Lectures by Lucas E. Morel, Joshua Claybourn and Edna Greene Medford will examine the influence of the Declaration of Independence in Lincoln’s time.
The first of our Forum panels will feature Harold Holzer, Michelle Krowl, Andrew F. Lang, Christian McWhirter, and Erin Carlson Mast on why Lincoln matters. The discussion is based on a new collection of essays edited by Jonathan W. White titled Why Lincoln? Lincoln Scholars Reflect on Why Lincoln Matters to Them, and Why He Should Matter to All of Us.
The second panel, “Lincoln’s Constitution,” will feature Edna Greene Medford, Lucas Morel, James Oakes, and Walter Stahr, who will discuss how Lincoln understood the Constitution as an antebellum politician and a wartime commander-in-chief.
Breakout sessions will feature Thomas Horrocks and Scott Schroeder on the Lincoln assassination; Stephen Engle and Walter Stahr on Civil War-era governors; Joshua Claybourn, Andrew F. Lang, and Scott Rosenau on Lincoln and the Founding; Edna Greene Medford and Kevin Levin on Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops; and Matt Pinsker and Jim Oakes on the current state of Lincoln scholarship. Finally, first-time attendees will have the opportunity to tour the Gettysburg Battlefield with Carol Reardon. And all attendees will have the opportunity to participate in the annual book sale and author book-signing.
A full schedule will be announced soon, but be sure to reserve your spot at Forum XXXI today!
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A Glorious Fate
The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
by Kevin M. Levin
328 pp., 28 halftones, notes, bibl., index
ISBN 978-1-4696-9717-8 $32.50 cloth
Publication date: September 29, 2026
For more information: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469697178/a-glorious-fate/