Tag: abraham lincoln

December 3, 2021

Author Jonathan W. White’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

Last month, the U.S. National Archives hosted a talk with Jonathan W. White where he discussed his latest book, To Address You As My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln. Many African Americans of the Civil War era felt a personal connection to Abraham Lincoln. For the first time in their lives, an occupant of the White House seemed concerned about… Continue Reading Author Jonathan W. White’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

African American Studies/Civil War/History/Video

September 11, 2020

Zachery A. Fry: A Political Scandal in the Union Army

Today we welcome a guest post from Zachery A. Fry, author of A Republic in the Ranks: Loyalty and Dissent in the Army of the Potomac, out now from UNC Press. The Army of the Potomac was a hotbed of political activity during the Civil War. As a source of dissent widely understood as a frustration for Abraham Lincoln, its onetime commander,… Continue Reading Zachery A. Fry: A Political Scandal in the Union Army

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/Military History/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

August 21, 2020

Michael E. Woods: Lincoln and Douglas–and Breese? Another Look at the 1858 Illinois Senate Race

Today we welcome a guest post from Michael E. Woods, author of Arguing Until Doomsday: Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and the Struggle for American Democracy, out now from UNC Press. As the sectional crisis gripped the United States, the rancor increasingly spread to the halls of Congress. Preston Brooks’s frenzied assault on Charles Sumner was perhaps the most notorious evidence… Continue Reading Michael E. Woods: Lincoln and Douglas–and Breese? Another Look at the 1858 Illinois Senate Race

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History/Political Science/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

Michael E. Woods: Remembering the Davis-Douglas Debates

Today we welcome a guest post from Michael E. Woods, author of Arguing Until Doomsday: Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and the Struggle for American Democracy, out now from UNC Press. As the sectional crisis gripped the United States, the rancor increasingly spread to the halls of Congress. Preston Brooks’s frenzied assault on Charles Sumner was perhaps the most notorious evidence… Continue Reading Michael E. Woods: Remembering the Davis-Douglas Debates

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/Political Science/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

December 15, 2017

Michael D. Robinson: Reconsidering John Jordan Crittenden

Today, we welcome a guest post from Michael D. Robinson, author of A Union Indivisible: Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South. Many accounts of the secession crisis overlook the sharp political conflict that took place in the Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. In A Union Indivisible, Michael D. Robinson expands the scope… Continue Reading Michael D. Robinson: Reconsidering John Jordan Crittenden

Author blog entry/Civil War/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

The History of Juneteenth: 5 Facts You Need to Know

Juneteenth is a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, given by President Abraham Lincoln, that declared freedom for all slaves in states still in rebellion. Continue Reading The History of Juneteenth: 5 Facts You Need to Know

African American History/African American Studies/Civil Rights/Civil War/Cultural Studies/Current Events/Events/Guest Bloggers/History/Politics/UNC Press Authors

William Marvel on Edwin Stanton’s Eulogy for Lincoln: Now He Belongs to the Ages?

One of the more touching moments in the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination came when a surgeon announced that the president was dead, whereupon the secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, broke the silence. “Now he belongs to the ages,” Stanton ostensibly observed, with a poetic spontaneity for which he was not known. Numerous people recount some form of the quote, but none of them recorded their memory of the phrase until a generation later, after it appeared in the multi-volume Lincoln biography by his former secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay. Nicolay was not in Washington that night; Hay is often depicted at the bedside, although the room was not big enough to accommodate all who have subsequently been placed around it at the moment of the president’s death. Continue Reading William Marvel on Edwin Stanton’s Eulogy for Lincoln: Now He Belongs to the Ages?

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History

August 21, 2014

Stephen Cushman on one of the quieter anniversaries of the Civil War

Over at our Civil War blog, Stephen Cushman, author of Belligerent Muse: Five Northern Writers and How They Shaped Our Understanding of the Civil War highlights a Civil War anniversary likely to be overlooked in this year’s sesquicentennial observances. Continue Reading Stephen Cushman on one of the quieter anniversaries of the Civil War

American History/Civil War/History

William A. Blair on the Consequences of Silence during the Civil War

Americans have a high regard for free speech, but should we have the same concern for the protection of silence? Should saying nothing or doing nothing open one to military arrest? What if a president has gone on record as advocating such a policy? This may sound like a ridiculous proposition, given our system of rights embedded in the Constitution. But it is not a hypothetical statement: this scenario faced northerners, border state loyalists, and especially Confederates in occupied zones during the U.S. Civil War. Saying nothing and doing nothing did bring the U.S. Army to one’s door. Continue Reading William A. Blair on the Consequences of Silence during the Civil War

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/Politics

November 19, 2012

Elizabeth Keckley in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”

Spielberg based more than 40 of his characters on historical figures; included in this group is Elizabeth Keckley, an enslaved woman whose 1868 book (Behind the Scenes, Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House) UNC Press and the UNC Library republished last year through the DocSouth Books program. Continue Reading Elizabeth Keckley in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”

African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/History

November 8, 2012

Video: Elizabeth Leonard talks to The Civil War Monitor

In this video, Elizabeth Leonard talks to the Civil War Monitor about Joseph Holt. She says Joseph Holt is “a very much forgotten personage from our historical past, and he’s someone who I think is probably the most important people from Lincoln’s administration who has been forgotten about.” Continue Reading Video: Elizabeth Leonard talks to The Civil War Monitor

American History/Civil War/History/Video

August 20, 2012

Kate Masur on Lincoln’s emigration proposal and the views of African American delegates

For all the attention to Lincoln’s ideas and motivations, however, there has been very little focus on the delegates’ side of the story. For decades no one even knew who they were, much less what they stood for. Drawing on the work of the historian Benjamin Quarles, many believed that four of the five delegates were uneducated former slaves, hand-picked by Lincoln and his colonization commissioner, James Mitchell, to be pliable and subservient.

In fact, all five of the men who listened to Lincoln’s case for colonization were members of Washington’s free black elite, chosen by a formal meeting of representatives from Washington’s independent black churches. Continue Reading Kate Masur on Lincoln’s emigration proposal and the views of African American delegates

African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/History

Video: Mark E. Neely Jr. on the advantage of the U.S. Constitution during the Civil War

“Because the Civil War, by chance, began right at the beginning of an administration, that part of the Constitution that gave the president a four-year term and made the president the commander-in-chief was extremely important. That meant that, barring impeachment or assassination, there would be a determined Republican in the White House fighting the South until March of 1865.”—Mark E. Neely Jr. Continue Reading Video: Mark E. Neely Jr. on the advantage of the U.S. Constitution during the Civil War

American History/Civil War/History/Video

December 13, 2011

Mark E. Neely Jr: Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation – An Excerpt

Much has been lost by this failure to consider both of the American constitutions in the Civil War. Since the constitutions were markedly similar in content, the historian has the opportunity to see the document tested in two different societies at the same time. The opportunity for comparisons is unequaled in history. And ultimately our judgments on the role of the Constitution in war should appear doubly sound. Continue Reading Mark E. Neely Jr: Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation – An Excerpt

American History/Civil War/Excerpts/Political Science

November 1, 2011

Elizabeth D. Leonard: Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally- An Excerpt

An excerpt from the new release Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky, by Elizabeth D. Leonard. Continue Reading Elizabeth D. Leonard: Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally- An Excerpt

American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/Excerpts/Military Studies

James Marten: Charity for All: A Little-Known Legacy of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

We welcome a guest post from James Marten, author of Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America. Today is the anniversary of President Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural, in which he made a promise that was kept by passing federal programs that took care of war veterans and their families. Here, Marten discusses the importance… Continue Reading James Marten: Charity for All: A Little-Known Legacy of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History/Military History

February 18, 2010

Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Early 1861 marked the only time in our nation’s history that it had two presidents, both calling for a return to the republic born in the American Revolution. On February 18, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America; on March 4, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States of… Continue Reading Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

American History/Civil War/UNC Press News

Juneteenth, Emancipation, and the Proclamation

Today, the UNC Press blog is happy to offer a guest post from William A. Blair, professor of U.S. history and director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University. In November, UNC Press will be publishing Lincoln’s Proclamation, a collection of essays coedited by Blair and Karen F. Younger that offers new… Continue Reading Juneteenth, Emancipation, and the Proclamation

African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

Upcoming events 4/14 – 4/20

Upcoming author events, including a C-SPAN taping tonight! Today, Tuesday, 4/14: John & Dale Reed in Kernersville, NC – Shakespeare & Company Books in Kernersville hosts the authors of Holy Smoke at 6 pm. Lars Schoultz in Durham, NC – The author of That Infernal Little Cuban Republic will read and speak at the Regulator Bookshop at 7 pm .… Continue Reading Upcoming events 4/14 – 4/20

American History/Birds & Birding/Cooking / Food/Events/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Law / Legal History/Military History/Nature/North Carolina/Politics/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies

February 12, 2009

UNC Press Authors at the Lincoln Presidential Library

While Google may be marking today as the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, many of us here at the UNC Press are thinking of another 200th birthday. Today marks the bicentennial birthday our our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, a reoccurring subject in many of our titles. Two titles in particular come to mind today. The first is Russell McClintock’s “Lincoln… Continue Reading UNC Press Authors at the Lincoln Presidential Library

American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/History/Military History/Military Studies/UNC Press Authors