The 2026 Fortenbaugh Lecture will feature Dickinson College historian Matthew Pinsker. Pinsker holds the Brian Pohanka Chair of Civil War History at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and serves as Director of the House Divided Project, one of the nation's most popular educational initiatives on nineteenth century US history. He has held visiting fellowships at the New America Foundation, U.S. Army War College, and the National Constitution Center. Pinsker graduated from Harvard College and received a doctorate from the University of Oxford. He is the author of three books, including most recently, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln (W.W. Norton, 2026), which the Wall Street Journal has labeled a "landmark book" and "Team of Rivals on steroids." He also produces a popular Substack series called: What Would Lincoln Do?
Pinsker appears regularly on TV channels such as C-SPAN, PBS, and A&E History, and has been recognized by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) as a “Distinguished Lecturer.” His online series for the History Channel, called "Sound Smart," has become a mainstay in social studies classrooms. Pinsker serves on the advisory boards of several historic organizations, such as Ford’s Theatre Society, Gettysburg Foundation, National Civil War Museum, President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home, and the Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History & Democracy.