We Ask A Historian: Just How Accurate Is ‘Lincoln’?

A great many families going to the movies over this Thanksgiving weekend will probably see Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s new film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and an impressive cast.

Based on a biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin, but scripted by playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner, it’s been very well-reviewed, but here’s a question: How true to history is it?

Ronald White, author of A. Lincoln: A Biography, tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer that if a ninth-grader were to write a school paper based on the film, she’d find that its “dramatic core” is basically on target.