Harold Holzer

History as Portrayed in Art: An Interview with Harold Holzer Sara Gabbard  Sara Gabbard: Please explain the circumstances under which you and your co-authors (Gabor Boritt and Mark Neely, Jr.) undertook this enormous project. Harold Holzer: Back in 1982—it’s hard...

Mystery Solved: Why the Harper’s Weekly Close-Up of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Credited A Photo By Alexander Gardner Harold Holzer  Students of mid-nineteenth-century image-making know that engravers and lithographers of that period—along with painters and sculptors—had become increasingly dependent on the...

Lincoln Through the Eyes of History: Harold Holzer on Francis Carpenter SG:  When we first discussed your participation in this series of articles about Lincoln biographers, you asked if I thought that Francis Carpenter should be included.  Obviously, Carpenter does...

Memories: An Interview with Harold Holzer Sara Gabbard: Recent questions about the fate of various Civil War memorials raise several obvious questions.  Is there a profound difference between possible sites for statues; e.g. public vs. private property? Harold Holzer: To...

An Interview with Harold Holzer, Author of Lincoln: President-Elect Sara Gabbard:  As we face a new presidency in the United States, it seems an appropriate time to discuss your 2009 book, which focuses on the time between Abraham Lincoln’s election...

HISTORY THROUGH A POET’S EYES Carl Sandburg’s books on Abraham Lincoln, far from traditional biography, remain unmatched for their vivid combination of mood, incident, and epochal sweep By HAROLD HOLZER The “elusive Lincoln is a challenge for any artist.”  So...

Sara Gabbard:  When in relationship to the timing of writing your marvelous Lincoln and the Power of the Press did you decide to write a book which would explore “the Endless Battle between the White House and the Media from...

Sara Gabbard:  Some of our readers already know, but for those who don’t:  Why did Lincoln become your lifelong focus? Harold Holzer: The “why” is harder to isolate than the “how.”  It began for me in a fifth grade classroom...

An Interview with Harold Holzer regarding his new book, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French [“As one of the foremost living authorities on Abraham Lincoln, Harold Holzer has long straddled the crossroads of history and art with...

Moderated by Harold Holzer A public sensation in the seven Illinois towns that hosted them—reprinted in the press at the time, in book form shortly thereafter, and in many edi­tions since—the 1858 Lincoln-Doug­las debates are remembered today, 160 years after...

By Harold Holzer As most readers of 19th-century history know, the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates sparked an explosion of public interest in Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and the sport of political debating itself.  The encounters not only riveted the tens...

Sara Gabbard:  In 1858, was there already a precedent for debates between competing candidates for political office? Harold Holzer:  Not much of one, really.  Certainly the 1830 Webster-Hayne debates over the tariff had long been famous nationwide, but these took...

Few artists did more to cement the reigning nineteenth-century image of Abraham Lincoln as “Great Emancipator” than Francis B. Carpenter, whose monumental canvas, The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet, won critical acclaim on national tour beginning…