On Friday, September 29, the 2023 History Book Festival Keynote Address featured Steve Inskeep, author of Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America (Penguin Press, 2023). Inskeep was in conversation with Christina Shutt.

The Keynote Address was funded through the generous support of Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman.

About the book
In 1855, with the United States at odds over slavery, the lawyer Abraham Lincoln wrote a note to his best friend, the son of a Kentucky slave owner. Lincoln rebuked his friend for failing to oppose slavery. But he added, “If for this you and I must differ, differ we must,” and said they would be friends forever.

Throughout his life and political career, Lincoln often agreed to disagree. Democracy demanded it, since even an adversary had a vote. The man who went on to become America’s 16th president has assumed many roles in our historical consciousness, but most notable is that he was, unapologetically, a politician. And as Steve Inskeep argues, it was because he was willing to engage in politics — meeting with critics, sometimes working with them and other times outwitting them — that he was able to lead a social revolution.

In Differ We Must, Inskeep illuminates Lincoln’s life through 16 encounters, some well-known, some obscure, but all imbued with new significance in this account. Many of his greatest acts came about through his engagement with people who disagreed with him. This is a compelling and nuanced exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen, illuminating a great politician’s strategy in a country divided — and offering lessons for our own disorderly present.

About the author
Steve Inskeep is the award-winning cohost of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the United States, and of NPR’s Up First, one of the nation’s most popular podcasts. His reporting has taken him across the United States, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Pakistan, and China. In addition to Differ We Must, Inskeep is the author of Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi; Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab; and Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War.

Christina Shutt is the executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. She was previously executive director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the African American museum of history and culture for the state of Arkansas. Shutt has also served as associate librarian for special collections and instruction at Hendrix College and an archivist for notable collections ranging from the history of medicine at Harvard University to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. papers at Boston University.

Purchase Inskeep’s earlier books
Steve Inskeep’s earlier books may be available at the Lewes Public Library. If you’d like to purchase one of the books, please support Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival, by using the links below.

• Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab (Penguin Books, 2016)

• Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War (Penguin Books, 2021)

Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing Festival books at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2023 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote Address is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing Address is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our program partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and venue; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.

Additional thanks to our community partners: ACLU Delaware, Beebe Healthcare, CAMP Rehoboth, Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Historical Society & Museum, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).