Understanding Lincoln: Close Readings of Lincoln Documents

Course Description

This series of 25 videos on key Lincoln documents supports an online graduate course offered jointly by the Gilder Lehrman Institute and Dickinson College. Each document is presented and described by Matthew Pinsker, the Brian C. Pohanka '77 Faculty Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College.

No one would have appreciated the power of online education more than Abraham Lincoln, one of the great self-made, lifelong learners in world history. This course, taught by Lincoln scholar and digital history pioneer Matthew Pinsker, aspires to create a learning experience that Lincoln himself would have embraced. We will focus our study on five popular characterizations applied to the sixteenth president during and after his life: the Railsplitter, Honest Abe, Father Abraham, the Great Emancipator, and Savior of the Union. We will critically examine each of these themes in order to understand their origins and assess their validity. In the process, students will gain a better understanding of Lincoln as a man and a president.