Teaching Lincoln ― Legacies and Classroom Strategies

Understanding the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln is often considered central to understanding American history: this anthology guides elementary, middle, and high school teachers in preparing lessons that help students understand Lincoln’s significance in American history. This book is a unique combination of thought-provoking essays by historians exploring various aspects of Lincoln’s presidency and valuable pedagogical essays by teachers offering teaching tips and lesson plans on how they have taught Lincoln. More than just a resource for teaching Lincoln, the book also helps teachers use his life to explore the fundamental themes of American nationalism and identity, leadership and power, emancipation and race, and the conflicting meanings of freedom.

Caroline R. Pryor is Associate Professor of Secondary Education and Curriculum at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is editor of Learning for Democracy: An International Journal of Thought and Practice and a Wye Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Dr. Pryor is author or co-author of six previous books, and has received six annual National Endowment for the Humanities awards for her workshop for school teachers on Abraham Lincoln.
Stephen L. Hansen is Professor and Dean Emeritus at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He has authored several books, book chapters, and articles on topics in higher education and in history, including The Making of the Third Party System: Voters and Parties in Illinois, 1850–1876 (1980). His articles and essays have appeared in Academic Leadership Journal, Research Management Review, Illinois Historical Journal, and the Lincoln Herald.