Abraham Lincoln called the United States “the last, best hope of earth.” He believed his fight to preserve the Union was a protection of, a preservation of liberties still being defined. Every day of Lincoln’s time in office was dominated by war — not against a foreign power but a war between the states, a civil war that still, of all America’s wars, inflicted the most casualties. Lincoln today is ranked as one of the nation’s greatest Presidents. But throughout his time in office, he was reviled and criticized, not just by the rebels of the South but also the abolitionists of the North who thought he was too slow to end slavery. Our series on presidential leadership in time of war continues with Abraham Lincoln.
Guests:
James McPherson, Professor of History, Princeton University
David Gergen, Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and former advisor to four Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton