By Stella Berry/OWU
Brown University historian Michael Vorenberg will discuss the challenges President Abraham Lincoln faced in his efforts to end the American Civil War and reconcile the United States when he speaks at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Vorenberg will present “Lincoln’s Peace: Struggling to Find the End of a War” at 7 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Benes Rooms of Ohio Wesleyan’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. Admission is free.
The Los Angeles Times named Vorenberg’s latest book, “Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War,” as one of the “Top ten books to read in 2025.” The book was a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize, and earned both the Tom Watson Brown Prize and the John L. Nau Prize for the best book on the history of the American Civil War.
In his book, Vorenberg explores Lincoln’s hopes to peacefully end the Civil War before his assassination, and the author analyzes alternative endpoints in the war, touching on themes of unresolved conflict and examining Lincoln’s unfinished vision for reconciliation. The Wall Street Journal describes “Lincoln’s Peace” as a “vivid introduction to the complexities of what we call Reconstruction, and the maddening difficulty of bringing a war to a close.”
Vorenberg is the Royce Family Professor of History at Brown University, where he teaches courses on the Civil War and American Legal and Constitutional History.
Vorenberg’s earlier books include “Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment,” a primary source for Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film, “Lincoln.” In addition, he wrote “The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents,” which explains the complex process of how African Americans gained their freedom.
Vorenberg’s presentation is the 2026 Richard W. Smith Lecture in Civil War History. The lecture is named in honor of Smith, Ph.D., a retired history professor who taught at OWU for 36 years. Smith passed away on July 1, 2025, at age 101. Learn more about Smith and his lecture series at owu.edu/history.
Image by Mark Miller from Pixabay
