The Boca Raton Public Library is pleased to host "Abraham Lincoln and the Crisis of Federalism in the Civil War," presented by FAU Professor Stephen D. Engle, PhD.
The departure of the southern states from the Union in 1860-1861 has obscured an equally important history of cooperative federalism between the various levels of American government during the Civil War. States that remained in the Union desired to sustain the federal government and represented this long-standing tradition of cooperation. What became an exercise in cooperative federalism took shape as governors worked to mobilize and shape Union war aims, all while demonstrating by their actions in working with President Lincoln and the federal government that states had more rights inside the Union than outside the Union.
Stephen Engle studies and teaches the political and economic evolution of the 19th Century American Republic. His research in this period has focused on the study of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era, and his books examine the ethnic dimensions of the period, civil-military relations during the war, and the politics of power.
He received his Ph.D. in American History from Florida State University in 1989. He spent a year teaching at Florida State University before joining the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in 1990. In his time at FAU, he has served as the Director of Graduate Programs (1997-2002), and as Department Chair (2002-2007). He is currently the Director of the Department's Symposia Series.
This presentation is funded by the Friends of BRPL.
The traveling exhibit "Abraham Lincoln: A Man of His Time, A Man for All Times" will also be on display at the Downtown Library from July 8- August 5, 2016. This exhibit is organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and made possible in part through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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