By David J. Kent
Washington, DC
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
The Lincoln Group of DC returns to Maggiano's for our April dinner meeting. The speaker is Roger Lowenstein, author of Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War. This in-person event will be held on April 18, 2023, beginning at 6:00 pm (Happy hour starts at 5:30 pm).
Lowenstein is a financial journalist who previously reported for The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, the New York Times, Fortune, the Atlantic Monthly, and other venues. He has authored seven books on financial topics ranging from biographies of Warren Buffett to analysis of financial crashes and the creation of the Federal Reserve. His newest book, Ways and Means, won the Harold Holzer Lincoln Forum book prize in 2022 and is a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize to be awarded in April 2023.
Ways and Means digs into the financing of the Civil War. It is a remarkably accessible book on how Lincoln and his cabinet (primarily Salmon P. Chase) somehow, against all odds, kept the economy from collapsing while finding creative ways to pay for the massive costs of war. In fact, Lowenstein shows us how the northern economy not only recovered from the initial economic depression caused by loss of southern markets but picked up steam and actually flourished. In contrast, the southern economy continued to fail miserably. Who knew finance could be so interesting?
As always, this dinner meeting will be held at Maggiano's restaurant in Chevy Chase, just steps from ample parking and the Friendship Heights Metro station. Happy hour will start at 5:30 pm, with dinner to follow by 6:30 pm and the speaker by 7 pm. Cost is $40 for the dinner, speaker, and special access to Lincoln-related books. We'll also try again to provide a Zoom link for those members living outside the Washington, DC area at no charge.
Check out the Events page to RSVP and please pre-pay so we can determine a head count for dinner. This is an event not to be missed.