The Civil war was the bloodiest war in American history.  We will be investigating some of the key themes in the war, in honor of the release of Steven Spielberg’s new film, “Lincoln.”

Lincoln was a controversial president–the historiography on Lincoln is all over the map, ranging from historians sympathetic to Lincoln and place him in the “best president ever” camp due to his skills as a negotiator and ability to preserve the Union to historians who feel that Lincoln himself had little concern for the issues of race and slavery as long as the Union was preserved and the United States was free to expand westward and industrialize.

Please read this board on Learnist about Lincoln:

Critical questions:

1. Was Lincoln a super-star President who held the Union together?

2. Does Lincoln deserve a spot in the “Presidential Hall of Fame?”

3. According to your research on Lincoln, who was “the real Lincoln?