Today’s post is from our Head of Adult Services, Bill:

February marks the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. CPL will commemorate Presidents Day and the office of the American presidency with the Arthur Hostage Memorial Lectures – two events in late February. These programs are made possible by donations given to the Friends of the Cheshire Public Library in memory of Arthur Hostage.

Join us on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2:00pm for “Simply Lincoln“. Being in the presence of Howard Wright as President Abraham Lincoln is an experience you will not soon forget. Dressed in precise period attire and speaking with a Kentucky accent, Lincoln’s mannerisms, speaking style, and humanity flows over the listener with each moving sentence, witty observance, or eloquent description of a tortuous time that was the Civil War. Authenticated speeches, letters, quotes, and humorous stories have been the foundation from which Howard Wright has crafted his program, giving you a sense of what it was like to have been in the presence of Abraham Lincoln.

On Tuesday, Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m., Dr. Matthew Warshauer, Professor of History, CCSU, will deliver a talk on “The Changing Nature of the American Presidency“. Dr. Warshauer’s books include, Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law: Nationalism, Civil Liberties, and Partisanship (2006); Andrew Jackson in Context (2009); Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice and Survival (2011), all of which have received praise from noted historians. Warshauer’s most recent book publication is Inside Connecticut and the Civil War: Essay’s on One State’s Struggles (2014), in which he edited essays authored by CCSU’s Department of History master’s students.

To learn more about the presidency throughout our nation’s history, we suggest checking out the following titles:

BOOKS

• Team of Rivals : the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Exploring Lincoln : Great Historians Reappraise Our Greatest President edited by Harold Holzer, Craig L. Symonds, and Frank J. Williams
• They Knew Lincoln by John E. Washington
• His Excellency : George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
• Accidental Presidents : Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen
• No Ordinary Time : Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt : the Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

 

• Impeachment : an American History by Jeffrey A. Engel, Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, Peter Baker
• When the Center Held : Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency by Donald Rumsfeld
• President Carter : the White House Years by Stuart E. Eizenstat
• The President Will See You Now : My Stories and Lessons from Ronald Reagan’s Final Years by Peggy Grande
• Presidential Courage : Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 by Michael Beschloss
• Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents : Everything You Need to Know About the Most Powerful Office on Earth and the Men Who Have Occupied It by Kenneth C. Davis

DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOKS

• Founders’ Son : a Life of Abraham Lincoln by Richard Brookhiser
• House of Abraham : Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided by War by Stephen Berry
• The Ascent of George Washington : the Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon by John Ferling
• Waking Giant : America in the Age of Jackson by David S. Reynolds
• White House Diary by Jimmy Carter

 

• Contenders : America’s Most Original Presidential Candidates by Joe Richman
• Great Presidents by Allan Lichtman
• American Heritage History of the Presidents by Michael R. Beschloss
• Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents by Robert Strauss
• 9 Presidents Who Screwed up America: and Four Who Tried to Save Her by Brion McClanahan