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Today Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States for the second time, sworn in on the Bible that had belonged to Abraham Lincoln, the first President to do so since Lincoln himself.

And this week Steven Spielberg's Oscar nominated biopic of Lincoln is released in the UK. Starring Daniel Day Lewis it details the political machinations of the passing of the 13th Amendment banning slavery.

Abraham Lincoln remains a towering figure in American life, and yet his legacy is not without controversy.

To discuss Lincoln Rana Mitter is joined by the historian Richard Carwardine (author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power), Adam Smith of University College London and expert on the American Civil War, Salamishah Tillet of Pennsylvania University (author of Sites of Slavery), the anthropologist and cultural critic Kit Davis of the School of Oriental and African Studies, and Jonathan Freedland, Guardian journalist and author of Bring Home the Revolution, an investigation into American political culture.

Producer Timothy Prosser.