TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

PROMO FOR   2/8/2009          "The President from Illinois"
*We know the story of our 16th president   born in a log cabin, taught
himself to read, led us through the bloodiest war ever fought on our
soil, wrote the Gettsyburg address and freed the slaves.  What don't we
know?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we celebrate
Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday with a look at the man as well as the
myth.

PROGRAM RUNDOWN:   "The President from Illinois"



0:00 - 13:58        SEGMENT 1: (13:59)
            Historian Orville Vernon Burton tells Jim Fleming about
            the parallels between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama.
            He thinks the men and their times have a lot in common. 
            Burton is the author of "The Age of Lincoln."  And we
            hear voxpops from visitors and staff at the Abraham
            Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois.  
                         
            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

13:59 - 14:29  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

14:30 - 36:16       SEGMENT 2: (21:48)
            We hear a montage of political advertising from the
            presidential election of 1860.  And, Doris Kearns Goodwin
            talks with Jim Fleming about her best-selling biography,
            "Team of Rivals."  And we hear more voxpops about lessons
            President Obama might draw from this aspect of President
            Lincoln's experience.  Also, Harvard University historian
            John Stauffer talks with Steve Paulson about whether or
            not Lincoln was a racist.  Stauffer is the author, most
            recently, of "Giants: the Parallel Lives of Frederick
            Douglass and Abraham Lincoln."  
                         
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

36:17 - 36:46       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

36:47 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (16:13)
            Historian and president of Harvard University, Drew
            Gilpin Faust tells Steve Paulson that Civil War deaths
            consumed the entire nation with grief and transformed
            America in many ways.  Her book is called "The Republic
            of Suffering."  Also, Sarah Vowell is obsessed by
            presidential assassinations.  She tells Steve Paulson
            about her road trip to explore the mysterious "Dr. Mud,"
            the surgeon who treated Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes
Booth. Maybe he was in on it?        
                    
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
2-8-A.


  copyright 2009 WHA
Radio and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
All rights reserved.