About the Webinar

Tackach maps Lincoln’s lifelong relationship with the natural world from his birth and boyhood on Midwestern farms through his political career and presidency dealing with the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War. The contradiction of Lincoln grows, raised on a farm, he turned away from the outdoor, manual labor of his youth and chose careers in law and politics and yet found solace in nature.  Lincoln often relied on examples and metaphors from the natural world in his speeches and writings.  Amid the Civil War, Lincoln seemed to sense that postwar Reconstruction would have to be spiritual, political, economic, and environmental in order to heal the nation’s wounds. He signed the Morrill Act, creating the land-grant colleges, and the environmentally progressive Yosemite Grant Act, which preserved thousands of acres of forest in California.  Tackach paints Lincoln’s personal and professional life against the backdrop of nineteenth-century American environmental history, issues, and writers, providing insights into contemporary environmental issues.

James Tackach is a Professor of English at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI.  He is the author of Lincoln's Moral Vision:  The Second Inaugural Address and Lincoln and the Natural Environment, which received a 2019 Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society.  He serves as President of the Lincoln Group of Boston.