The Oxford Centre for Research in United States History (OxCRUSH), in collaboration with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in Washington D.C. and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, is undertaking a project exploring the global reach and significance of the sixteenth president of the United States since his death in 1865. 

As the defender of the Union during the American Civil War and the leader who oversaw the emancipation of the slaves, Lincoln would become – in many different places and at various times during the century and a half following his assassination – a cult figure and an ever-changing symbol. 

The project involves leading scholars of countries and regions beyond the United States – historians, political scientists and specialists in cultural studies – to investigate how Lincoln has been variously interpreted, and reinterpreted, to meet the needs of a particular place, time and culture;

In July 2009, to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, the project will bring together these specialists for a collaborative conference in Oxford, designed to present the research findings to a wide international audience.

See the conference website at http://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/lincoln/

The project is led in OxCRUSH by Professor Richard Carwardine and Dr Jay Sexton