Symposium Spotlight: Keynote Speakers

We’re pleased to share more information about our keynote sessions for the 13th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge. The event will be held August. 7–9, 2026 at Stevenson Ridge on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield. Early bird tickets are $275 through December 31 and are available here. (Last week, we revealed a part of our line-up—more to come soon!)

Harold Holzer: “Presidents in Print: The Dueling Images of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis”

Dr. Craig L. Symonds: “Admirals in Blue and Gray: Farragut and Buchanan”

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Dr. Craig L. Symonds is Professor of History Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy where he taught for thirty years. From 2017 to 2020 he was the Ernest J. King Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of eighteen books, including Nimitz at War, which won the 2023 Gilder-Lehrman Prize for Military History, and Neptune, about the U.S. Navy’s role in the D-Day landings, which won the S. E. Morison Prize. His most recent book is Annapolis Goes to War about the Naval Academy class of 1940. He has also been awarded the Lincoln Prize, the Roosevelt Prize, and the Pritzker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

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Harold Holzer is the Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, a post he assumed in 2015 after 23 years as Senior Vice President for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He served for ten years (2000-2010) as co-chairman of the U. S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (appointed by President Clinton) and is the co-founder and chairman of The Lincoln Forum.

In 2008, Holzer was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush. Holzer is the author, co-author, or editor of 55 books on Lincoln, the Civil War, and the history of the American media. His Lincoln and the Power of the Press won the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and awards from the Columbia University School of Journalism, and Harvard’s Kennedy School. His book Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French earned a New England Society Award and the Saint-Gaudens Medal. His latest book is Brought Forth on this Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration (2024), honored by the Society of Presidential Descendants.

Holzer, who has lectured nationwide for more than 45 years, has also appeared in Lincoln-related on-stage performances with actors Sam Waterston, Richard Dreyfuss, Liam Neeson, and many others, at venues that include the White House, Ford’s Theatre, the Library of Congress, and the George H. W. Bush and William J. Clinton Presidential Libraries.

The historical consultant for Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, he was featured in 2021-2022 Lincoln documentaries on both CNN and the History Channel. Holzer has received nine honorary degrees and written more than 650 articles along with chapters or introductions for 65 additional books. He served for three years as the Roger Hertog Fellow at the New York Historical, and for two semesters as a guest scholar at Yeshiva University and the Cardozo School of Law.

Holzer and his wife, Edith, live in New York City, and have two daughters and two grandsons.