Fred Greenstein

Poster for Web Greenstein

Professor of Politics Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Buchanan vs. Lincoln: A Presidential Comparison

Friday, October 29, 2010
Denny Hall, Room 317, 4:00 p.m.

No two presidents are viewed as having been more unlike than Buchanan and Lincoln. Historians typically rate Buchanan near the bottom of the list of presidents and Lincoln at the top. This lecture addresses whether these two presidents differed that much, whether the historians’ ratings are justified, and whether there is any merit to such ratings?

James Buchanan is an 1809 graduate of Dickinson College.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Fred I. Greenstein is Professor of Politics Emeritus at Princeton University. His books include Children and Politics (1965), Personality and Politics (1969), The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader (1982), How Presidents Test Reality (1989, with John P. Burke), The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Barack Obama (2009), and Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson (2009). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past president of the International Society for Political Psychology. He received a BA from Antioch College in 1953 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1960.

Video of the Program