Few Hollywood films have ever been as well suited for discussion within American history classrooms as Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” (2012). The movie tackles some of the biggest issues in the study of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s legacy but does so with a tight framework that demands background and careful explanation. On this page, we attempt to help teachers guide their students by providing a series of resources that might serve as an unofficial “teacher’s guide” to this important film.
General Background
Cast of Characters (with comparison images of real figures and actors)
Scene-by-scene summary (with access to Tony Kushner’s script)
Historians React to the “Lincoln” Movie
Warning: Artists at Work (extensive analysis of artistic license in the “Lincoln” movie)
Teaching the “Lincoln” Movie
Lincoln and War Powers (lesson plan aligned with Common Core)
Related Research Tools
The Basic Lincoln (records from House Divided research engine)
The Total Lincoln (Lincoln’s Collected Works, Papers, and Day-By-Day –all in one place)
Lincoln-Douglas Debates Digital Classroom (includes clickable word cloud of the debates)
Interactive Excerpts from Michael Burlingame’s Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2008)
Matthew Pinsker challenges the “Myth” of Rivals (Journal Divided)
Why is Feb. 1st “National Freedom Day”? (Blog Divided)
