Watch Now: Cottage Conversation with Matthew Pinsker on Boss Lincoln
By: Kelsey Johnston
Baltimore, MD
Oct. 30, 2026
Earlier this month, the Lincoln Group partnered with President Lincoln's Cottage and the Abraham Lincoln Association to host a Cottage Conversation with historian Matthew Pinsker. Pinsker was joined in conversation by Bloomberg columnist Frank Barry. The two discussed the themes and relevance of Pinsker's new book Boss Lincoln.
The lively conversation focused on Abraham Lincoln and the politics of the Civil War. In his book, Pinsker explores Lincoln behind the scenes as a political operator and the leader of the Republican Party. Pinsker and Barry discussed how this research shows a different side of Lincoln than the one widely discussed.
Matthew Pinsker holds the Brian Pohanka Chair of Civil War History at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and serves as director of the House Divided Project, an educational initiative on 19 century US history. Matt has held visiting fellowships at New America Foundation, the U.S. Army War College, and the National Constitution Center. He graduated from Harvard College and received a doctorate from the University of Oxford. He is the author of three books, including most recently, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln (W.W. Norton, 2026), which the Wall Street Journal has labeled a “landmark book” and which New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie has called “extraordinarily relevant to our political moment.”
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