Michael Siegel is the author of The President as Leader, an analysis of the leadership skills of five recent American presidents.
Honest Abe will get a nod from Steven Spielberg when his latest film, "Lincoln," hits theaters nationwide Friday. The state of Illinois is rolling...
Lincoln was here. And over there. And around the corner too. In the Richmond and Petersburg areas, 30 places are linked by Lincoln on a new Lincoln m...
Abraham Lincoln's sexual proclivities have long been the subject of titillating rumors and historical debate, but Lincoln's alleged "lavender side" is...
It's been 148 years since the events dramatized in Lincoln. Much has changed, but much is the same. The question now is how the tall, pensive man in the White House will use his power, and whether he will rise to the challenge of history.
I hate to disappoint the 675,000 whiny diaper babies calling for secession in the wake of the election but, sorry, no matter how hard they stomp their feet and pout and fling their feces at the electoral map, demands for secession might as well be demands for goblins and unicorns.
Lincoln's major achievement is the creation of the grand world in which Lincoln exists in balance with the quiet, tender internal struggle he endured. The films confronts issues of freedom we debate to this day.
LOS ANGELES — A towering figure such as Abraham Lincoln, who stood 6 feet 4 and was one of history's master orators, must have had a booming voi...
What are compelling biographies which attempt to peel away the saintly image and iconography surrounding Mr. Lincoln? To help us with such a tall order, I reached out to some scholars and historians, who in addition to offering book recommendations, shared their favorite Abraham Lincoln anecdotes.
Memo to President Barack Obama from your powerful friends in Hollywood: You are the president of the United States, clothed in immense power. Now use it. That, at least, seems to be the message of Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's surprisingly riveting examination of the 16th president's campaign to persuade that unruly collection of hicks, fanatics and thieves known as the House of Representatives to pass a Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. Lincoln's Republican party outnumbered their Democratic rivals, but Constitutional Amendments require a two-thirds majority. So the challenge was to keep the Republican caucus in line and pick off about 20 votes from the other side. And so the arm-twisting began. If that sounds familiar, it should. It's reasonable to think that this film couldn't and wouldn't have been made at any other time.
-- "Lincoln's Battle with God: A President's Struggle with Faith and What it Meant for America" (Thomas Nelson), by Stephen Mansfield He has previou...
With Friday's limited-release opening of Hollywood's latest take on the sixteenth president of the United States' life, some Illinois landmarks are ge...
Why does Lincoln never get dated? Why can his story be told again and again, and never seem to wear out its welcome? I think it has something to do with how visceral our needs are for equality -- equity in opportunity, justice and dignity.
Interstate commerce is how our country operates. Having strong railroads and reasonable services and rates are what makes this country go round. Our coal, our food and other commodities are transported by rail.
Lincoln may be what America needs right now to remind us what politics, for all its messy, dispiriting ugliness, can and should be about -- doing the right, moral thing to better us all.
It's kind of odd to think that, before this year, Sally Field hadn't appeared in a movie since the little-seen 2006 drama "Two Weeks." Thankfully, Fie...
Don't know much about history -- but you don't have to in order to be captivated by Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.
As David Eisenhower taught me in his class on presidential communication at the University of Pennsylvania, strong speeches often have "echoes" of other speeches within them. Last night's victory speech is a perfect example of a speech containing "echoes."
Daniel Day-Lewis is being acclaimed for his hyper-realistic portrayal of our 16th president, so it only seems logical that the grittiest comedy on TV ...
Taxes are not a punishment. And they aren't a transactional payment for what you directly get back. They are the price of your liberty and of keeping your team in good shape. What can look like a sacrifice is actually a sacred and immeasurable gain.
NEW YORK -- Richard Nelson Current, a prolific and award-winning Abraham Lincoln scholar who for decades was a leader in his field and helped shape a ...
LOS ANGELES — The task of encapsulating the essence of Abraham Lincoln in a single film took Steven Spielberg roughly three times as long as it ...
Using historical data, we can identify what experience is most important in hiring a new president. While there are no perfectly objective ways to measure presidential quality, it is fair to say that historians' estimates will certainly succeed at separating the George Washingtons from the Franklin Pierces.
Gautam Mukunda is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, a book which analyzes how and when historic and modern leaders make a difference.
We must all remember that the president can still look for inspiration to Abraham Lincoln in 1864, Bill Clinton in 1996, and Michael Jordan in game five of the 1997 playoffs.
