NPR 'Morning Edition' host Steve Inskeep will be part of Lincoln lecture series at UIS

Steve Inskeep , the "Morning Edition" host on National Public Radio, will be in Springfield later this summer to discuss his 2023 book on Abraham Lincoln.

The Mary and James Beaumont Endowed Lincoln Legacy Lecture Series focuses on Lincoln and political conflict and takes place at the University of Illinois Springfield Student Union on Sept. 12.

Inskeep's "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in A Divided America" (Penguin Press) breaks down 16 encounters Lincoln had with political friends and foes, ranging from Stephen Douglas to Frederick Douglass, and how he navigated the political squabbles.

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Inskeep researched part of his book in Springfield.

The title of the book comes from a passage in an Aug. 24, 1855, letter Lincoln wrote to his longtime Kentucky friend, Joshua Fry Speed, with whom he clashed on the question of slavery: " If for this you and I must differ, differ we must. "

Inskeep is the author of two other books dealing with 19th century historic events: "Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab" in 2015 and "Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War" in 2020.

Inskeep has hosted "Morning Edition" for the last 20 years, but the Carmel, Indiana, native came to NPR in 1996, covering the presidential election out of the gate. He has covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has won the National Headliner Award and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award .

Also in the lecture series is Sarah E. Anderson, an associate professor of environmental politics at the University of California Santa Barbara, and the author of "Rejecting Compromise" (Cambridge University Press, with Daniel M. Butler and Laurel Harbridge-Yong). It examines why national, state and local lawmakers often reject compromise proposals that would move policy in their preferred direction.

"Morning Edition" is heard weekdays from 4 to 9 a.m. on NPR Illinois .

C ontact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: NPR 'Morning Edition' host Steve Inskeep will be part of Lincoln lecture series at UIS