For the first Regional History Colloquium of the 2016-2017 Series, LancasterHistory.org welcomes Paul Kahan, Ph.D. who will present a lecture on his most recent publication Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s Scandalous Secretary of War. From abject poverty to undisputed political boss of Pennsylvania, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, senator, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a founder of the Republican Party, Simon Cameron was one of the 19th-century’s most prominent political figures. In his wake, however, he left a series of questionable political and business dealings, and, at the age of eighty, even a sex scandal.

Paul Kahan, Ph.D. is a lecturer at Ohlone College in Fremont, California. He earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Temple University. Amiable Scoundrel is Kahan’s fourth book, after Eastern State Penitentiary: A History; Seminary of Virtue: The Ideology and Practice of Inmate Reform at Eastern State Penitentiary, 1829-1971; and The Homestead Strike: Labor, Violence, and American Industry.

The colloquium Amiable Scoundrel will take place on Thursday, September 29, 2016 in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org, 230 N President Avenue, Lancaster. A social gathering with refreshments and booksigning by the author will begin at 4pm, followed by the lecture from 4:30-5:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.