For Abraham Lincoln, the road to the future always began in the past – with the Founding Fathers, who inspired him to take up public life, showed him how to win arguments, and laid out his nation’s principles.
On the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s death, historian Richard Brookhiser delivers an illuminating new look at our 16th and arguably greatest president. Discussing his latest book, Brookhiser reveals a man who, in search of an intellectual and emotional replacement for his own taciturn father, turned to the examples and works of George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson for knowledge, guidance, inspiration, and purpose.
Brookhiser, a senior editor of National Review and author of 11 books, is a recipient of the National Medal of the Humanities.
Co-sponsored by the National Review Institute.
(Kansas City, Missouri) - For Abraham Lincoln, the road to the future always began in the past. It was the nation's Founding Fathers who had laid out his country's principles, who inspired him, in turn, to take up public life, who left a blueprint for how to prevail in times of disagreement.
On the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death, historian Richard Brookhiser delivers an illuminating new look at our 16th and arguably greatest president in a discussion of his latest book, Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln, on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.
Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and recipient of the National Medal of the Humanities. Chronicling Lincoln's life from his humble origins in Kentucky to his assassination in Washington, D.C., his book examines every aspect of the man: the laborer, lawyer, congressman, and president; the storyteller, wit, and lover of ribald jokes; the poet, friend, and visionary.
He reveals a Lincoln who, in search of an intellectual and emotional replacement for his own taciturn father, turned time and again to the examples of George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson for knowledge, guidance, inspiration, and purpose.
As Brookhiser puts it, "Our greatest man was shaped by our original greatest generation."
Brookhiser has written for National Review since graduating from Yale in 1977. He also wrote a column for the New York Observer for 20 years, and his work has appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair. He is the author of 11 books including America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918; Alexander Hamilton, American; and Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington.
The presentation is co-sponsored by the National Review Institute.
A 6 p.m. reception precedes the event. Admission is free. RSVP at kclibrary.org or call 816.701.3407. Free parking is available in the Library District parking garage at 10th and Baltimore.