From the sponsors of the Lincoln Prize:
Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has named David S. Reynolds, author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times (Penguin Press) as the recipient of the 2021 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.
Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and also a critic, historian, and biographer, who explores the intersections between culture, society, and politics. In the field of history, he highlights the importance of culture. Upholding Lincoln’s view that, “He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions,” throughout his extensive writing career, Reynolds reveals the importance of influential outliers who have altered public opinion and thus have had a profound impact on many aspects of American life.
He will be recognized during a virtual event hosted by Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History on Monday, April 19, 2021. The award includes a $50,000 prize and a bronze replica of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ life-size bust, “Lincoln the Man.”
Reynolds’ 1,088-page biography, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Books of the Year and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year. It shows us the extraordinary range of cultural knowledge Lincoln drew from as he shaped a vision of true union, transforming, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “…the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
“From one of the strongest pools of finalist books ever in the history of the Lincoln Prize, David Reynolds’ Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times emerged as this year’s winner—a book that accomplished the impossible, to show us something new about Lincoln while also giving us a rich history of the cultural influences that shaped his world view and gave him his unsurpassed common touch with ordinary Americans. A great read,” said President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History James G. Basker.
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