Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words


       Course Number 877--24 lectures (30 minutes per lecture)

     Taught by: Professor David Zarefsky--Northwestern University

 "Lincoln is a much more complex figure--as a man, as a thinker, as a
politician--than Americans conventionally believe. . . we will explore
             some of the dimensions of that complexity."
                      --Professor David Zarefsky

The speeches of Abraham Lincoln are a precious inheritance for all
Americans, and indeed for all the world.

As he led our nation through the gravest crisis it has ever faced,
Lincoln emerged as our master of public eloquence without rival or
equal. The example he set of statesmanship, courage, prudence, and
magnanimity shines like a beacon down the years, to be looked to
wherever the American experiment in ordered liberty and
self-government is honored.

Now, with this course devoted to Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words,
you can trace the sources and development of Lincoln's rhetorical
greatness with the help of one of America's leading teachers of speech
and public communication.

Professor David Zarefsky brings scholarly rigor and passion to bear in
a way that you'll find most rewarding. You'll witness American history
in the making as you follow Lincoln's career as an orator from the
Young Men's Lyceum Speech of 1838 to the majestic biblical cadences of
the Second Inaugural. You'll even learn about the last speech Lincoln
ever gave--a talk on his plans for Reconstruction, delivered at the
White House just three days before his death.

                Lincoln's Rhetorical Greatness: A Fact

Why this course? The fact of Lincoln's rhetorical greatness is well
known, observes Professor Zarefsky, but like everything else about our
16th president, we see it through a retrospective lens that is
unavoidably distorted by our knowledge of his assassination. In other
words, precisely because Abraham Lincoln is a national hero and
martyr, we have lost sight of some of his depth and complexity. In a
similar way, some of his greatest words--the Gettysburg Address
especially--have become so familiar to us that we have almost lost the
power truly to hear them.

Thus Lincoln's stature is recognized, but it remains clouded by legend
and misconception, while the true nature and depth of Lincoln's
achievement are often poorly understood. Many people, for instance,
labor under the false notion that Lincoln was always a skilled public
communicator. Or that he and Stephen A. Douglas met in their famous
debates while they were running against each other for the presidency.
Or that Lincoln was predicting the Civil War when he famously said
that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

                    The Road to Gettysburg Address

In fact, Lincoln had to learn the art of democratic persuasion amid
the intense political and moral debates that gripped America during
the middle third of the 19th century, meaning most especially the
controversy over slavery and its expansion that culminated in the
Civil War. He did not start out at the level of the Gettysburg
Address, but walked a long road to reach that surpassing height.
Thanks to Professor Zarefsky's profound learning and superb gifts as a
lecturer, you can use these lectures to follow Lincoln step by step on
that road. You will see how he reflected upon the issues of his day
and the nature of the American promise, and how he both shaped and was
shaped by public opinion, responded to changing events and
circumstances, and behaved in the cut and thrust of debate with
formidable opponents such as Stephen A. Douglas.

In short, you will gain a comprehensive view of Lincoln's
statesmanship from the inside, leading you to an understanding of how
he could call America to "a new birth of freedom" even while the
nation was enduring the terrible ordeal of civil war.

                       A Compelling Human Story

Behind all the evidence and analysis that Professor Zarefsky so ably
marshals, there stands a compelling human story. Abraham Lincoln: In
His Own Words shows you how a frontier lawyer who had less than a year
of formal schooling and described his own origins as "the short and
simple annals of the poor" could give us the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural.

Lincoln's tale is one of the most amazing and inspiring episodes in
the annals of America. Professor Zarefsky has devoted decades of study
to understanding it. He is a compelling speaker in his own right. His
lectures combine scholarly exactitude and careful organization with a
sense of drama and narrative energy that will keep you listening or
viewing eagerly from beginning to end.

You already know that Lincoln achieved a rare height where political
discourse embraces true poetry and joins hands with moral grandeur.
Now you can learn how he did so. Order Abraham Lincoln: In His Own
Words today. We guarantee your complete satisfaction.

Part I 
Lecture 1: Lincoln and Rhetoric
Lecture 2: The Lyceum Speech, 1838
Lecture 3: The Temperance Speech, 1842
Lecture 4: Lincoln as a Young Whig
Lecture 5: Lincoln Returns to Politics
Lecture 6: The Peoria Speech, 1854
Lecture 7: Lincoln's Rhetoric and Politics, 1854-1857
Lecture 8: The Springfield Speech, 1857
Lecture 9: The "House Divided" Speech, 1858
Lecture 10: The Chicago Speech, July 1858
Lecture 11: The Springfield Speech, July 1858
Lecture 12: The Debate About the Debates

Part II
Lecture 13: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates I
Lecture 14: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates II
Lecture 15: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates III
Lecture 16: The Aftermath of the Debates
Lecture 17: Lincoln's 1859 Speeches
Lecture 18: The Cooper Union Speech, 1860
Lecture 19: The Campaign of 1860
Lecture 20: The First Inaugural Address
Lecture 21: Justifying the War
Lecture 22: Moving Toward Emancipation
Lecture 23: Lincoln at Gettysburg
Lecture 24: Lincoln's Last Speeches