How should we teach Lincoln’s nationalism?<\/a><\/p>\nYou can view (and vote) on all of the answers to this question at Quora, which is a free site but one that requires registration. Or you can see excerpts from some of the most thought-provoking answers below:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mary Beth Donnelly<\/h3>\n
You can\u2019t teach Lincoln\u2019s nationalism without first teaching students what this word means.\u00a0 Defined as \u201cloyalty and devotion to a nation\u201d by Merriam Webster, we should start by asking our students what nationalism means to them and how they express it.\u00a0 Do we show our nationalism at school?\u00a0 (If so, is it saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning?\u00a0 Is it learning about the Revolutionary War?) Do we display nationalism outside of school?\u00a0 (Is it eating hot dogs and watching fireworks on July 4?\u00a0 Is it standing up when we hear the \u201cStar Spangled Banner\u201d?)\u00a0 Do we demonstrate nationalism through our career choices and decisions?\u00a0 (Is it joining the military when we reach adulthood?\u00a0 Is it running for office?)\u00a0 In other words, do we have a concrete idea of what nationalism means\u2014or do we just know it when we see it? Always wanting my students to consider a different perspective and to look beyond easy answers, an introductory conversation on this topic should reveal that what nationalism looks like \u201cin action\u201d is subjective and thus, inherently debatable.<\/p>\n
Brian Harding<\/h3>\n
I have long been fascinated by Lincoln\u2019s insistence that secession did not actually occur.\u00a0 This has always struck me as odd, that a man with such a realistic understanding of the world around him might deny a factual reality that was staring him in the face.\u00a0 I had assumed Lincoln did not really mean what he was saying, that he did understand all along that a new government was formed, and that he toed this rhetorical line only because he understood doing so made a Union victory more likely, that men could be more effectively rallied to the cause.\u00a0 But, I now think it more likely that Lincoln truly believed what he was saying all along, that the Confederacy was at its heart an act of treason rather than of secession.\u00a0 We see this in Lincoln\u2019s First Inaugural in 1861 (\u201cno government proper, ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination … in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken<\/i>\u2026.\u201d). \u00a0We see this still in Lincoln\u2019s indirect communication with Jefferson Davis (\u201c…a view to securing peace to the people of our one common country<\/i>.\u201d).\u00a0But if this was an act of treason, it was an act of treason that stood a good chance of succeeding.\u00a0 Had the election of 1864 gone to the Democratic candidate–if General McClellan became President McClellan–there would have been two nations, not one.\u00a0 Lincoln certainly recognized this.<\/p>\nKory Loyola<\/h3>\n
As president, Lincoln placed nationalism above all other priorities. Lincoln\u2019s nationalism, though, should not be defined in terms of seeing ones nation as superior to all others, but Lincoln was motivated by an American national identity,\u00a0 the \u201cUnion,\u201d that focused on the will of the people through democratic elections and the ability of free people to be compensated for their labor.\u00a0 Lincoln\u2019s devotion to these causes was almost a religion, it trumped all other considerations during his presidency.\u00a0 For students to understand Lincoln, they must understand what prompted him to run for president, commit to war, run for re-election, and embark on plan for emancipation.<\/p>\n
John Sheridan<\/h3>\n
In teaching Lincoln\u2019s nationalism, I think one should draw upon Lincoln \u201cthe teacher.\u201d\u00a0 Some might argue these are simply Lincoln\u2019s characteristics as a great leader.\u00a0 To me, there is a strong correlation between teaching and leadership!\u00a0 While we didn\u2019t spend as much time on Lincoln\u2019s leadership characteristics as I would have hoped, his ability to establish in his own mind a clear vision, then communicate that vision, are critical to his success.\u00a0 In the previous paragraph I referenced Lincoln\u2019s focus; I now point to the Gettysburg Address as his attempt to mobilize our nation\u2019s \u201clearners\u201d by communicating his vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Quora, the social question & answer website, we have posted the following essential question to help teachers and students organize their thoughts on some of the documents within the Father Abraham theme: How should we teach Lincoln’s nationalism? You can view (and vote) on all of the answers to this question at Quora, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4082","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4083,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4082\/revisions\/4083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}