An examination of the intimate life of America's most consequential president, Abraham Lincoln. As told by preeminent Lincoln scholars and never before seen photographs and letters, Lincoln's romantic relationships with men is detailed. The lens is widened into the history of human sexual fluidity and focuses on the profound differences between sexual mores of the 19th century and those we hold today.
Direction
Peterson lets scholars speak without sensationalizing.
Editing
Seamless weaving of photographs, letters, and expert testimony.
Writing
Reframes Lincoln through intimate relationships, not just politics.
Director
Shaun Peterson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film enters a heated scholarly debate that exploded in 2005 when C.A. Tripp's 'The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln' was posthumously published, with some historians calling it evidence of a gay Lincoln and others dismissing it as anachronistic projection.
The documentary deliberately mirrors LGBTQ+ historiography methodology used for figures like Walt Whitman and Eleanor Roosevelt — treating same-sex intimacy as historically contingent rather than applying modern identity categories.
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