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About Me

David J Kent Lincoln Memorial centennialMy name is David J. Kent. I am an Abraham Lincoln historian, a former career scientist, and a global traveler. Here is me in a nutshell:

      • Author of 7 books on Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison
      • Author of chapters in 3 additional books
      • Over 200 articles in popular and scholarly magazines, journals, and newspapers
      • Over 200 presentations to a variety of interest groups
      • Editor of over 20 scholarly papers and dissertations
      • Contributed over 1,500 posts for a variety of blogs
      • Written hundreds of technical scientific reports
      • Recipient of around 50 awards and recognitions in both my scientific and Lincoln historian careers
      • World traveler to nearly 90 countries and territories (with more on the way)

Also:

  • Past President for the Lincoln Group of DC and previously for 4 scientific organizations
  • Currently on the Advisory Boards of three Abraham Lincoln organizations
  • Current Lincolniana Editor for the Lincoln Herald
  • Chairmanships for more than a dozen conferences and committees
  • Dozens of appearances on C-SPAN, local and national broadcasts, podcasts, radio, and other virtual and in-person media

I was the primary organizer and served as Master of Ceremonies for the Lincoln Memorial Centennial program in 2022. I also was the keynote speaker and presented the Gettysburg Address at the 2024 Lincoln Birthday Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. I have spoken at the dedications of other memorials and somber events.

 

My newest book is Lincoln, The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America. You can purchase it at any bookseller nationwide, as well as in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Signed copies can be ordered here. Here are two of the many advance praises for the book:

This is the first in-depth study of Abraham Lincoln’s interest in technology and science and how that interest impacted his life and his Presidency. As Kent demonstrates, Lincoln was a catalyst for some of that transformation wrought by science and technology.

Fire of Genius

– Marc Rothenberg, Ph.D., Editor, The Papers of Joseph Henry, and past Historian, National Academy of Sciences 

 

David J. Kent, a man of science and of history, has skillfully combined his knowledge of both to write a masterful treatise on Lincoln’s scientific mind.

– Edward Steers, Jr., Ph.D., author of Blood on the Moon and Getting Right With Lincoln.

 

I also have two other books on Abraham Lincoln – Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. Check them out here.

I’ve also written books about famous scientists – Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World, plus an e-book: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of His Time.

 

 

[Photo of David J. Kent at Lincoln Memorial Centennial courtesy of Bruce Guthrie]

 

Fire of Genius

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.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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The Great Wall of China and Mount St. Helens – A note about the header photos

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I’ve been asked whether I took the photos you see in the header.  The answer is yes.

As of this writing there are several photos that alternate in the header as you click through the various pages.  I’ll write separate posts on each of these as this site develops – including showing the full photo (they had to be cropped to fit the header size). Click on the photo title to get to posts that have already been written. Here’s a quick synopsis:

The Great Wall of China: Taken on film in December 2000 on my first trip to Beijing, China.  The day was freezing. Actually, below freezing.  In fact, 5 degrees F.  But the experience was something that I couldn’t get out of my mind even if I wanted to (which I don’t).

Mount St. Helens: A special access visit to the Park Service location in Washington State as part of a scientific conference. You can see where the side of the mountain blew out in 1980. The hot vapors you see are from new volcanic activity occurring while I was there in November 2004.

Palau de les Arts and L’hemisferic: Two of the amazing modern buildings in the ancient city of Valencia, Spain. Taken in 2008, they are part of the “City of Arts and Sciences” that also includes a world famous aquarium. As with the other photos, the original is even more impressive because there is a reflecting pool in the foreground.

Sunset in Fairfax: A spectacular sunset I encountered by chance one day upon arriving home from work.  The photo is shot from my back deck and the moment was gone within a minute after taking it.  The jet contrails add some intrigue to the reddest sky I have ever seen.

Stonehenge: The famous archeological site about two hours west of London. Seems they still can’t figure out for sure what its purpose was, but that doesn’t stop everyone from guessing – everything from a celestial clock to a sign that we once had alien visitors. It’s actually pretty cool for a bunch of big stones.

Gondolas: The photo was taken near Piazza San Marco – St. Mark’s Plaza – in Venice during a beautiful late summer day. The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore can be seen in the background.

El Teide: The third largest volcano in the world, El Teide sits on Tenerife, the largest island of the seven Canary Islands. This was taken Christmas day. At the base it was hot as the tropics; at the peak it was below freezing and snow covered.

Perito Moreno Glacier: Perito Moreno is in southern Patagonia, Argentina. I went there in February (their summer) to visit and travel with a long-time friend from my days in Bermuda. The site truly is breathtaking.

James Joyce: The photo that accompanies this post is a detail of the James Joyce statue taken in downtown Dublin, Ireland in 2010. This photo plays an important role in my “Adventures in Europe” photobook.

The book Stack: This photo shows a stack of my published books through September of 2016, including the two Fall River Press books, the two e-books, and the photo book. It will be replaced with each new book that joins the stack.

More about me.

 

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A passion for Abraham Lincoln

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You could say I have a passion for Abraham Lincoln.  Ever since I was a kid I remember being fascinated by our 16th President.  A man of great strength – both physically and in character.  A man who was called to serve his country when his country was trying to rend itself asunder. A man who ultimately gave up his life to save the Union.

As this writer’s site develops I’ll be creating pages for topics of interest to me, and hopefully to you.  The first is Abraham Lincoln.  In it will be updates on Lincoln-related projects such as books about Lincoln and the book I’m writing about him.

Other pages will spring up as time permits.  The next will probably be one for a book that I may be writing about Nikola Tesla.  I’m waiting for the final offer from the publisher and a contract, then I’ll be off and running.

Another page will be travel.  I’ve done quite a bit of traveling in the last 10 years and plan to do quite a bit more.  I’ll document some of the stories from the road, including my long conversation with a Japanese man on a Tokyo train…a conversation in which he spoke no English and I spoke no Japanese and yet we got along famously.

Each of these pages, and others, can be found quickly by clicking on the bar below the photos.  That is, once they are all created.  And yes, the photos are all ones I have taken over the years.  I’ll do a post on that some day as well.

Feel free to subscribe to this web site – see the right column on the home page – or bookmark your favorite page and come back periodically for updates.  The site, and the writing, is a work in progress so expect things to pop up frequently.

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Adventures in Europe

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Ah, Europe.  Before the recent financial collapse, the kind of story book setting that I once read in, well, story books.

Spring to spring for the three years beginning in 2008 and ending in 2011 I had the good fortune to have been seconded to Brussels by my employer.  Not the first time I had lived overseas – I had short periods previously living in Bermuda and in Scotland – but at three full years it was my longest opportunity of ex-pat living.

And live I did.  Europe by its very proximity of nations offers a chance to experience  a wide variety of languages, and cultures within a few mere hours. A one week driving tour, for example, took me into five different countries speaking four primary languages and through some of the oldest and charming cities in central Europe.  More on those in later posts.

The purpose of this present post is to introduce a book of photography I published near the end of that three year European experience.  Called “Adventures in Europe,” the book has 46 pages of photos I took at venues across the continent.  Dedicated to my parents, it was my way of sharing my experiences with them and my extended family back home.

Click on the photo below to see the book.

See more travel stories here.