Abraham Lincoln’s humor, empathy offer comms lessons for divisive times

There have been about 16,000 books written about Abraham Lincoln and his legacy. Among them, CNN political analyst and anchor John Avlon’s new book, “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace,” may be the first focus on how Lincoln’s skills as a writer, orator and communicator helped shape his plan to move forward after wartime.

During a conversation with Ragan Communications CEO Diane Schwartz at PR Daily’s Media Relations and Measurement Conference on May 11, Avlon explained why no one’s ever done a book about “Lincoln the Peacemaker” before.

“There’s a pretty good reason,” said Avlon, he said, “which is that he’s assassinated five days after Appomattox, after Lee surrenders to Grant. But, as I show, he was developing a very consistent guide to how you win a peace after winning a war. You can’t simply pound your opponents into submission, you can’t salt the fields. You’ve gotta find a way to live together again, to work together again, to reason together again.”

Avlon and Schwartz discussed what today’s communicators can learn from Lincoln’s skills as a storyteller, humorist and empath — and how comms skills can drive reconciliation in today’s bitter social and political climate.