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I like the alliteration. I’ve had quite a few transitions, travels, and talks since my last post. In that one I noted that I had been on the road and had met with several people with interesting stories. I have stayed closer to home lately, although not completely.
But let’s start with the transitions. A couple of weeks ago I transitioned out of my role of Lincoln Group of DC president, a position I had held for the last three years. As I wrote in a post on the Lincolnian.org website, I had been in various executive positions in the group for the last decade, plus a bit of a shadow on many other positions. It was time for a change. My last official duties as president were to host a final guest speaker talk on Zoom and preside over elections of the new officers and board. I’ll still be active in many ways, including the fortnightly editorial calls for the website, the quarterly book reviews for the newsletter, and a new role as historian to sort through six file cabinet drawers to write a group history. It’s only been two weeks, but I’ve already found it difficult to let go of my previous role, although I have promised the new president I will stay out of his way as much as possible.
The rest of the transition is to refocus my efforts on finishing several writing projects. Easier said than done.
The travels have been relatively limited in recent weeks, but that’s about to change. I did travel to York, Pennsylvania to give a talk related to my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, to the local Civil War Round Table. The in-person audience was small but there were some number also attending on Zoom. I even got a bump in book sales from it. On the way back from York I stopped in Gettysburg to visit the National Cemetery. I also made a detour to Hanover Junction to see the railroad station where Lincoln changed trains on his way to Gettysburg to give his famous Address.
I’ll soon be making a much longer trip to Africa. Until a few years ago I had never been to the continent. Then in 2022 I went on a safari to Tanzania. In 2023 I went to Morocco. This year will take me first to South Africa, then to Botswana, and on to Zimbabwe. The irony here is that the only place in Africa I originally had on my bucket list was the pyramids of Egypt, and now I’ve been to three different parts of Africa and still haven’t managed to see any pyramids. I’m already thinking South America for the next year or two, so hopefully the pyramids will still be standing when I finally get there.
I already mentioned the talk in York, PA, and most of the talks I’ve participated in the last few weeks have been to listen to others. I am, however, an active participant in the monthly Lincoln Group study forum where we discuss whatever book we’re currently digging into. The discussions are lively and usually bring a great deal of insight to the book (we’re nearing the end of a five-month excavation of Kevin Peraino’s Lincoln in the World, a book about foreign policy during the Civil War).
I did give one talk this past Thursday evening, and it was one of the most rewarding. The White House Historical Association has a series they call History Happy Hour, and yes, they have a sponsor who prepares a cocktail at the beginning (although unfortunately for me, Lincoln was a teetotaler, so the drink was a virgin cocktail, i.e., without alcohol). The program was on Zoom and had several hundred participants – including Australia and Europe – quite a bump up from the number I spoke to in York. The topic was different as well. While I base every talk on some portion of my book, I make it relevant to the expected audience. Since York was a Civil War Round Table, I spoke about Lincoln’s influence on weaponry and other technology during the war. For the White House program, I focused on how Lincoln institutionalized science in the federal government by initiating the Permanent Commission of the Navy, the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Agriculture, and the precursor to the National Park System (not to mention the first foray of the federal government into the nation’s educational system). In other venues I’ve talked about Lincoln’s patent, his own educational upbringing, his lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, his legal career, his political career, and even how he got a virus and almost died. Then there is his long road to emancipation and a variety of other topics I’ve tackled in the past. In October, I’ll be talking about the critical election of 1864.
This summer, after Africa, the plan is to do fewer talks and more writing. I have my next book in progress and three others in various stages of planning/writing. They are first priority. Then there are the aforementioned historian duties, with a lot of time needed to sort through the files. Oh, and I almost forgot – I have taken on an editorship for an Abraham Lincoln journal called the Lincoln Herald.
Definitely not bored yet.
[Photo of Detail of Abraham Lincoln bust in Gettysburg National Cemetery by David J. Kent]
Lincoln: The Fire of Genius is available for purchase at all bookseller outlets. Limited signed copies are available here. The book is also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. If you read the book, please leave a review and/or rating.
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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.