Don’t miss the Lincoln Bicentennial National Teach-In on February 12, 2009 at 1:30pm (EST).

House Divided co-director and Dickinson College Professor Matthew Pinsker, Lincoln Bicentennial co-chair Harold Holzer, and Doris Kearns Goodwin (Team of Rivals) will discuss the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln during a live webcast available at this site: http://www.history.com/lincoln

The Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has more information about this event and the participants.

Two questions to consider before the webcast -

What can we learn from Lincoln?

What should we be doing to honor his 200th birthday?

The New York Times just published an interesting article about a new museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The David Willis House, which opens tomorrow (February 12, 2009), was where President Abraham Lincoln spent the night before he gave the Gettysburg Address. Yet as Sean Hamill explains, “the museum’s larger purpose…is to tell what happened after the Civil War battle [in July 1863], when dead and wounded soldiers outnumbered the town’s 2,400 residents by 11 to 1.” You can find out more about this museum at this National Park Service website.

The University of Houston has created a wonderful resource called Digital History. The site itself contains an abundance of great information presented in an interactive manner. In particular, the site contains an interesting section titled Reconstruction: Interpreting Primary Sources. This section contains several transcribed primary sources relating to the reconstruction period and concludes with several questions that can be used as either great class discussion, or as a seperate assignment. I recommend checking it out and browsing the site.

The US Army has released a flash-based, interactive look at the Battle of Gettysburg . The page includes a step-by-step depiction of the battle using a topographic map with graphic overlays of the various Confederate and Union forces. Also included are profiles of various participants, weapon analysis, and other statistics. The website has plenty of valuable and interesting information. It requires Adobe Flash Player in order to run.

History teachers should check out Northern Illinois University’s digital collections. While some collections focus only on Illinois history, others cover a broad range of topics such as the Mexican-American War and election campaigns (1840 – 1860). Each site offers primary sources, maps, lesson plans, audio files, and other materials. Be sure to take a look at Mark Twain’s Mississippi for a number of interesting resources, such as large collection of videos. In addition, Northern Illinois University provides free access to articles published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society between 1979 and 2006.

PBS has a great website for the Reconstruction period. The site contains interactive activities for students as well as lesson plans for teachers. The site is based off of a PBS program on reconstruction which can be viewed in its entirety on the site as well.

According to a recent article by the Associated Press, there is a battle being waged between Wal-Mart and preservationists that are trying to stop the retail giant from building a store near hallowed grounds. The company’s plans are to build a store near the site of the Wildnerness Battlefield, the place where Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee fought. Although the plans do not put the store directly on hallowed grounds, it would be located on the site of what was a marshaling area for the Union Army. In response, 253 scholars, historians, and concerned citizens including filmaker Ken Burns and authors James M. McPherson and David McCullough sent a letter to the company asking it to move the store elsewhere. As this conflict indiciates, the struggle for preserving America’s historic places is far from over.

John Stewart’s The Daily Show on Comedy Central recently aired a clip about Obama’s “Team of Rivals.” Many compare this move to the team of rivals Lincoln created during his administration. While the clip may not have as much information as other resources, it certainly is a creative and comical way to introduce the topic to students in the high school grade levels.

When the word filibuster is used today, it is most often in reference to political act of extending a debate in order to prevent a vote on an issue. In nineteenth century America, the term filibuster took on a different tone. Instead, it referred to the violent and treasonous acts by Americans to extend slavery into Central and South America. A major figure in the filibuster was William Walker, “the grey-eyed man of destiny”, who led several filibustering expeditions in Mexico and South America before being executed in Honduras in 1860. Though unsuccessful like the movement as a whole, Walker and filibustering are another example of the violent events concerning the extension of slavery that preceded the Civil War.

I argued yesterday in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that Lincoln’s experience with cabinet-making (the famous “Team of Rivals”) was more of a cautionary tale than a model to follow.

Consider this inconvenient truth: Out of the four leading vote-getters for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination whom Lincoln placed on his original team, three left during his first term — one in disgrace, one in defiance and one in disgust.

The article stirred up a decent response.  The New York Times Opinionator addressed the topic.  Daily Kos offered a poll pitting my interpretation against the more famous one by Doris Kearns Goodwin (I’m losing, by the way).  And there’s been calls and emails from various reporters.

Lincoln is the Great Example and all of us want to try to understand what his experience represents.  Look at the evidence yourself, or with your students, and decide for yourself.  Nothing could be more timely.