Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Re-Made America

This Garry Wills masterpiece is a suitable work of scholarship for America's greatest speech. He breaks down the Gettysburg Address line by line, thought by thought, not in linear fashion but according to five separate themes. He marks a place for Lincoln's speech in the tradition of funeral oratory, lays bare the antecedents in Greek rhetoric, and illustrates how the pitch-perfect brevity of the address marked a fundamental shift in American public speaking. Most crucially, Wills makes a thoroughly cogent case for Lincoln as the second Jefferson, responsible for the modern acknowledgement that the Declaration of Independence, with its claim (a claim its author didn't even believe) that all men are created equal, is the true founding document of the United States, rather than the Constitution (which in legal fact is the founding document), which shamefully kept silent on the fate of the "peculiar institution" that led to civil war. Wills's book is staggeringly erudite; he dazzles even when he leaves the poor reader's understanding far behind. The information he includes on historical context is compelling and will be new to even committed Civil War buffs. The book should be required reading in any course on American history or rhetoric and public speaking. Five stars aren't enough.

Literary prizes are handed out every year, but true worth is manifested by actual readers going out and buying their books year after year. Nearly a decade has passed since Garry Wills won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for "Lincoln at Gettysburg," but the magnitude of his achievement is measured by the continued interest which book lovers have lavished on this thoughtful and debate-stirring work of history. Wills situates the Gettysburg Address in the Greek Revivalism exemplified by Edward Everrett (the forgotten featured speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetary), as well as in the Transcendentalist movement of Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He goes on to demonstrate the inherant radicalism of Lincoln's 272 immortal words, imbued as they are with the dangerous notion that all men are created equal. Wills argues convincingly that the Gettysburg address hijacked the narrow readings of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution put forward by the southern rebels; through his words, Lincoln succeeded in placing these founding documents on the side of the angels by insisting that liberty and equality rather than sterile legalisms about states rights were the true basis of the grand experiment of the founders. In so doing, America's greatest President changed the history of the nation forever, influencing politics and policy right down to the present day. Huzzahs to Mr Wills for disinterring the radical hidden within the Great Compromiser!! And thanks to the prize committees for getting it right for a change.

Wills carefully recreates the world of Lincoln's time in retelling the story of America's greatest speech. In the course of painting the intellectual, social, political, and military canvas that forms the background for the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery, he convincingly put forth his thesis: that the Gettysburg speech powerfully shaped the course of American history -- in ways that were much more profound than any piece of legislation, Supreme Court ruling, or other overt political act. Lincoln's speech not only defined what the Civil War was about, but also defined what the results of the war should be -- and because of the Gettysburg Address -- would be. The "better angels of our nature" must prevail not merely in re-uniting the disparate states, but in fact in redefining the American union and calling the nation to "a new birth of freedom".Well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, this is inspired exegesis of some of the most inspirational words in American history. It should be required reading for every citizen who casts a ballot.

Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in Lincoln, the Civil War, American History in general, or how to write great prose. Wills manages to be scholarly and readable at the same time. Reviews and analyzes the Gettysburg Address (but does not, thank goodness, deconstruct it); entertains, informs, and provokes. Just an all-around wonderful book; belongs on the shelf of anyone who likes thinking about language, and whether and how it can shape history.