Past discussions

2021-2025

September 22, 2025 – Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by Donald T. Phillips (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1993).

Barnes & Noble on Lincoln on Leadership : You think you have it rough? Only ten days before Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office in 1861, the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union, taking all Federal agencies, forts, and arenas within their territory. To make matters worse, Lincoln, who was elected by a minority of the popular vote, was thought of by his own advisors as nothing more than a gawky second-rate country lawyer with no leadership experience.

What Lincoln did to become our most honored and revered president is history; now his wisdom and leadership philosophy can help you run your business.

May 27, 2025 – Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America by Steve Inskeep (Penguin Random House, 2023).

With rich detail and enlightening commentary, Steve Inskeep, cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, illuminates Lincoln’s life through sixteen encounters and expands our understanding of a politician navigating between corrosive political factions while holding strong to his moral compass. 

September 17, 2024 – The Demon of Unrest: a Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson (HarperCollins, 2024).

American journalist, author of historical non-fiction, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts (among many other titles) chronicles the five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the impending crisis of the Civil War. 

January 23, 2024 – The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention that Changed History by Edward Achorn (Grove Atlantic, 2023).

Harold Holzer Lincoln Forum Book Award and Lincoln Institute Book Award winner Edward Achorn presents a richly detailed micro-history of the raucous 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago that produced underdog candidate Abraham Lincoln as his party’s presidential nominee.

October 17, 2023 – And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, by Jon Meacham (PenguinRandom House, 2022).

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham chronicles the life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln.

January 17, 2023 – Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War, by Roger Lowenstein (Penguin Press, 2022).

American financial journalist and author Roger Lowenstein, guest speaker at our 2023 Lincoln Dinner, joined our virtual book discussion in January. Lowenstein is the recipient of the 2022 Howard Holzer Lincoln Forum Book Prize for Ways and Means.

October 25, 2022 – Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words that Remade America, by Gary Wills (Simon & Schuster, 1992).
This winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1993) is a perennial favorite for exploration of a speech that was said to “redefine the Constitution in light of the Declaration of Independence.” (Patrick T. Reardon)

July 19, 2022 – An American Marriage: the Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, by Michael Burlingame (Simon and Schuster, 2021).
Lincoln scholar Burlingame is a past dinner speaker at the Lincoln Club of Delaware.

April 11, 2022 – 1861: The Civil War Awakening, by Adam Goodheart (Knopf/Vintage, 2011).
Our Spring 2022 selection was the bestselling history of the first year of the Civil War by Washington College Professor Adam Goodheart, our invited speaker for the annual Lincoln Dinner held on May 3, 2022.

June 14, 2021 – Lincoln’s Mentors: The Education of a Leader, by Micahel Gerhardt (Harper Collins, 2021).
Gerhardt’s critically acclaimed study looks at Lincoln’s lessons from influencers around him who shaped his leadership style.