WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Center for Lincoln Studies will host the 24th annual Beaumont Endowed Lincoln Legacy Lecture, “Lincoln and America 250,” featuring Jon Grinspan, the curator of political history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Saladin Ambar, professor of political science and senior scholar at the Eagleton Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University. A book signing will follow the program. The lecture is free and open to the public.

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22

WHERE: UIS Student Union Ballroom, 2251 Richard Wright Drive, Springfield

DETAILS:  As we are in the midst of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Grinspan will discuss the often contested meaning of America through the contested nature of public events stretching from the first Fourth of July through the centennial a hundred years later.

Grinspan is the author of “Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War.” His award-winning books and New York Times articles have explored the deep history of American democracy, including the 19th-century youth vote, Gilded Age political angst, militant anti-slavery clubs, Civil War coffee and too-far political comedy.

Ambar is the author of “Murder on the Mississippi: The Shocking Crimes That Shaped Abraham Lincoln.” Ambar’s research focuses on the institutions of the American presidency and governorship, race and ethnic politics, American political thought and American political development.

Registration is required to attend the event.