Steve Engle, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University whose research interests include the Civil War, chews the fat about Honest Abe in advance of today’s premiere of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, based on the 2010 best seller.

The Palm Beach Post: Did you read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter?

Engle: “I did not. Are you kidding? I’m trying to finish my own book. It’s called All the President’s Statesmen: Abraham Lincoln, Union Governors, and Federalism in the Civil War. Nothing like vampires. I’m just trying to wrap that up this summer, and oh, it’s a beast. It’s about 1,000 pages, and I’m hoping something new will be said on Lincoln. … It’s boring, boring, scholarly stuff that nobody will ever make a movie about.”

The Post: So what do you think of a book, and now movie, that pits the Great Emancipator against vampires?

Engle: “I think it’s an interesting time. Vampires are all the rage. You walk into class and three or four students are reading books about vampires. I don’t care what they’re reading — at least they’re reading. Here again, you can prostitute Lincoln for a good cause. You’re getting kids to read again, and maybe next time it’s George Washington or Hamilton. … If Lincoln is good for vampires and vice versa, use the Founding Fathers next.”

The Post: Physically, how well-suited would Lincoln have been to wallop the undead?

Engle: “If you looked at him at that young age, he was a daunting-looking character. He just looked like a back-country, rugged guy — a guy who could knock your block off. I think that probably saved him from getting into a lot of scuffles. (In 1831 in New Salem, Ill.,) he wrestled someone to the ground and that won him wide acclaim. Word got around that ‘Lincoln is a great fighter, a person who could take care of himself’.”

The Post: In the book and movie, Lincoln battles blood suckers while presiding over a country at war — in real life, how good was he at multi-tasking?

Engle: “Very good. Here’s a guy who had to think about the Union at war, so he had to be concerned about the military, he had to be concerned about his Republican party, about radical members in Congress, his constituency at home and the soldiers in the ranks. He had to wave a hand over all those and give them some courage, some comfort and some relief that said, ‘We’re going to be fine.’”

The Post: So do you have a favorite movie about Abraham Lincoln?

Engle: “No, I do not. I’m more of a reader.”