Lincoln: The Fire of Genius has been reviewed several times, including in Civil War Times, but there was recently a new one in the Civil War Monitor magazine. Written by Jonathan Tracey, co-editor of Civil War Monuments and Memory with Chris Mackowski, the review is very positive.
Tracey notes:
“Kent, who has authored books on Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, applies his technological history lens to Abraham Lincoln in this book. Part biography and part history of innovation, Kent moves chronologically through Lincoln’s life following the threads of technology and science.”
And,
“Throughout the book, Kent repeatedly supplies strong evidence that Lincoln was a thoughtful and curious man who defied stereotypes. He was aware of advancement in fields as diverse as soil sciences, ship design, railroads, and military weapons, and he used this information in his professional and political careers.”
You can read the entire review online.
The Civil War Times review can be found in the Spring 2023 issue (page 67).
This week also featured comments from me in a Salon article written by Matt Rozsa. He explored the incident in which Lincoln says he sewed the eyes of hogs shut to get them on the flatboat (which didn’t work). Rozsa quoted me substantively, along with Harold Holzer and the president of PETA. You can read that article online at: https://www.salon.com/2023/06/04/abraham-lincoln-pig-torture-animal-cruelty-compassion/
Rozsa had quoted me last year in an article about Lincoln’s patent: https://www.salon.com/2022/08/27/abraham-lincoln-master-inventor-the-true-story-of-the-only-to-ever-patent-an-invention/
More past events and media mentions can be found on my media page.
[Screenshot of Civil War Monitor review online]
Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.
Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.
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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.
His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Abraham Lincoln famously had less than one year of formal schooling, but you can find him now at both Harvard and Yale.
Several days before my visit to Harvard I was on the Yale campus. Lincoln had given a speech in 1860 in Union Hall. The hall no longer stands (the High School in a Community is now in its place) but there is a memory of Lincoln on the green at Yale. There, at least up until recently, stood a majestic Oak deemed the “Lincoln Memorial Oak” that had stood for ages. In late 2012 the stately old tree was toppled by Superstorm Sandy, 
In less than two weeks I’ll be joining Jon Meacham and three other Lincoln scholars on the stage at Ford’s Theatre for the Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium.
While February 27 is most famous for Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Cooper Union address, it also is the date on which in 1836 Lincoln bought shares in the stock of the Beardstown and Sangamon Canal. Already the Whig leader in the Illinois state legislator at 27 years old, Lincoln promoted the American System of economic development, promoting internal improvement programs such as canals, roads, navigable rivers, and railroads. The Sangamon River passed by Lincoln’s home in New Salem and had already been a major factor in several incidents in Lincoln’s life as a flatboatman and steamship pilot, so he had made several attempts to improve the navigability of the narrow, curvy river.
Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, died on January 17, 1851, at the ripe old age of 73. Abraham opted not to travel to see his father in his waning days, in part because they were no longer close, but also because Lincoln’s third son, Willie, had been born about a month before and his wife, Mary, was exhibiting significant post=partum sickness. I visited the Lincoln homestead and gravesite near Lerna, Illinois, a few years ago in order to learn more about Thomas and 
The year in a writer’s life was spectacular. My new book was released, I did tons of media, and wrote constantly, while also juggling my duties as president of the Lincoln Group of DC. Sometimes those two lives blended to the point where the line between them wasn’t so easy to determine. Adding in my 
Some followers will recall that my annual travel roundup has been called “
My interview on 
