Join Lincoln Presidential Foundation, in partnership with Southern Illinois University Press, on Thursday, May 7, 2026, for a special U.S. 250th Anniversary panel discussion featuring contributors to the Concise Lincoln Library book series by SIU Press, including series editor Sylvia Frank Rodrigue and scholars John C. Rodrigue, Edna Greene Medford, and Lucas E. Morel.

This exciting series brings together expert scholars to elaborate on the life, times, and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Through short, focused books, each concentrating on a different area of Lincoln’s life and career, the Concise Lincoln Library brings fresh perspectives to well-known topics, investigates previously overlooked subjects, and explores in greater depth topics that have not yet received book-length treatment.

Each book gives readers the opportunity to quickly achieve basic knowledge of a Lincoln-related topic. In an effort to make new scholarship accessible to the widest audience possible, the books carry minimal endnotes and historiography and are written in a style that is easy for anyone to understand. In-depth yet accessible, the Concise Lincoln Library appeals to both the novice and the Lincoln scholar.

“Southern Illinois University Press’s Concise Lincoln Library series is a unique contribution to the study of Abraham Lincoln and his impact on American History. These pithy insights into important topics of Lincoln's life and times, each written by a noted Lincoln scholar, has allowed the general public—young as well as old—to access and understand perhaps the most important era in America's past.”—Daniel R. Weinberg, Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc.

SIU Press received the Wendy Allen Award for Institutional Excellence from the Lincoln Forum in honor of the Concise Lincoln Library.

Series co-editors Richard W. Etulain, Sara Vaughn Gabbard, and Sylvia Frank Rodrigue received the Harold Holzer Lincoln Forum Book Prize for their work in editing the Concise Lincoln Library.  

The Concise Lincoln Library was made possible in part through generous donations by the Leland E. and LaRita R. Boren Trust and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

Register Here

Build Your Concise Lincoln Library! Visit SIU Press HERE and purchase 5+ copies of Concise Lincoln Library books and receive a 40% discount (use promo code BUILDCLL40). Purchase 10+ copies of Concise Lincoln Library books and receive a 50% discount (use promo code BUILDCLL50).