Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Walker Howe explains how President Abraham Lincoln’s youthful obsession with self-improvement made him one of the most successful presidents in American history on Thursday, March 4, at 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

Howe will discuss how Lincoln’s program of self-education through disciplined reading, and other experiences in his young adulthood, shaped his moral character and influenced his politics and his worldview.

Howe won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2008 for his book What Hath God Wrought.

The event is part of the University of Missouri – Kansas City Richard D. McKinzie Symposium.

The symposium includes three additional events geared toward teachers and students to be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, March 5. Featured speakers include Jonathan Earle, associate professor of history at the University of Kansas, and Mia Bay, associate professor of history at Rutgers University. At 11 a.m. Howe will join Earle and Bay for a panel discussion about Lincoln’s place in American history and the challenges of teaching race and politics.