Michael is a gifted speaker and makes history come to life. His presentation is perfect for all ages. Come hear him weave history into a fascinating and insightful story! Michael Burlingame, holder of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield, is the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln and the Civil War, as well as the editor of many collections of Lincoln primary source materials. A graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University, he taught at Connecticut College in New London for many years before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois Springfield nine years ago. The Atlantic rated Abraham Lincoln: A Life one of the five best books of the year 2009, and in the New York Review of Books, the dean of Civil War historians, James McPherson, wrote that Burlingame “knows more about Lincoln than any other living person."