{"182571":{"#nid":"182571","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Mechanisms of Liberty: Law, Technology, and Freedom in the World of Lincoln","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBorn on the western frontier in 1809, Abraham Lincoln entered a world alive with experiment. As new technologies such as steam and the telegraph transformed their material circumstances and reach, Americans of Lincoln\u2019s generation conducted a grand experiment in constitutionally-based, democratic self-governance.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Lincoln, technology held both promise and peril for the tenuous democratic experiment. The country lawyer and politician embraced the regulating mechanism of law as a tool for shaping technology in ways that preserved the new nation and secured genuine liberty for its citizenry. Lincoln\u2019s efforts to reconcile the mechanisms of law and technology and achieve his vision of a just and free society met stiff resistance in the North and ultimately brought him into conflict with slave holders, who looked for the same instruments of law to secure their own vision of liberty and social justice. With the constitutional crisis of secession and Civil War, the shaping power of law loomed larger than ever, as did the transforming potential of technology. President Lincoln grappled with these dual mechanisms for social transformation, even as he dealt with the pressing issues of war and slavery.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EProfessor Steven W. Usselman\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;is Chair of Georgia Tech\u2019s School of History, Technology, and Society. A past- president of the Society for the History of Technology, he is the author of Regulating Railroad Innovation: Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920, which won the Ellis Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians and was a finalist for the J. Willard Hurst Prize in legal history.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsselman\u0027s lecture is open to the public. For more information about the Lincoln lecture series and the exhibit, visit the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/weblog.library.gatech.edu\/news\/2012\/12\/10\/lincoln-the-constitution-and-the-civil-war-exhibit\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Library\u0027s blog\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Mechanisms of Liberty: Law, Technology, and Freedom in the World of Lincoln\u0022 is presented by Dr. Steven Usselman, Professor and chair of the School of History, Technology, and Society at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"This is the first talk in a 3-part lecture series held in conjunction with the traveling exhibit \u0022Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War\u0022."}],"uid":"27508","created_gmt":"2013-01-11 10:06:55","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:01:55","author":"Tearanny Street","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2013-01-17T15:30:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2013-01-17T16:30:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2013-01-17T16:30:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2013-01-17 20:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2013-01-17 21:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2013-01-17 21:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"176641":{"id":"176641","type":"image","title":"Lincoln","body":null,"created":"1449179031","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:43:51","changed":"1475894787","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:27","alt":"Lincoln","file":{"fid":"195885","name":"lincoln.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lincoln_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lincoln_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":140727,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lincoln_0.png?itok=lEmoQJde"}},"182661":{"id":"182661","type":"image","title":"Steven W. Usselman","body":null,"created":"1449179062","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:44:22","changed":"1475894828","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:08","alt":"Steven W. Usselman","file":{"fid":"196070","name":"steve_usselman.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/steve_usselman_0.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/steve_usselman_0.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2459,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/steve_usselman_0.jpeg?itok=BEVhoYbu"}}},"media_ids":["176641","182661"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/weblog.library.gatech.edu\/news\/2012\/12\/10\/lincoln-the-constitution-and-the-civil-war-exhibit\/","title":"\u0027Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War\u0027 Exhibits Opens at Georgia Tech"}],"groups":[{"id":"47240","name":"Georgia Tech Library"},{"id":"133581","name":"Clough Commons Events Calendar"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"23441","name":"clough_events"},{"id":"11532","name":"library_events"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJennifer Upton, Marketing \u0026amp; Events Manager\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:Jennifer.Upton@library.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJennifer.Upton@library.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Library\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}