To mark the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, The Huntington brought together a distinguished group of scholars to discuss America’s 16th president, his times, and his historical impact. The conference, “A Lincoln for the Twenty-First Century,” took place in April 2009. David Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University and the director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition.