The title of this year’s lecture is “Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War,” and the guest is Michael Vorenberg, professor of history at Brown University. He will discuss his recent, award-wining book of the same title with Williams Chair, Susannah J. Ural, as they explore Vorenberg's analysis of President Lincoln’s vision for how the Civil War should end, how that plan evolved after his assassination and how the Civil War’s end (or multiple endings) shaped how we remember it today.

Vorenberg’s book was the recipient of the 2026 Tom Watson Brown Book Award and the 2026 John L. Nau III Book Prize in American Civil War Era History, and a finalist for the 2026 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Copies of "Lincoln's Peace" will be available for purchase the night of the event, and a reception and signing will follow the lecture.