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 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.
The reason for 4 stars is that Wills sometimes forgets what Lincoln so clearly demonstrated - a simple clear sentence can work wonders. At times, Wills gets a bit carried away with his writing. Last, to the reviewer who said that Lincoln was as bad a president as Clinton; and, to the one who thought he lead us on the road to socialism... Sheesh... what planet are you on? Clinton would love the comparison, and old guard Republicans should must be spinning in their graves. Dean
- A thumbs up to Wills for including Edward Everett's two-hour speech in the back of his book. While most of us have heard that Lincoln was not the featured speaker and spoke for only two minutes after Everett's saga on Nov. 19, it is not widely known what was said prior to Lincoln's closing. Wills includes in the Appendix Everett's entire speech and gives us little doubt why Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
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Wills provides an excellent literary analysis of the famous address. He clearly debunks the old "back of the envelope" myth and shows that Lincoln did not treat the occassion lightly by not preparing his remarks properly. Instead, Wills demonstrates that Lincoln built on his knowledge of the Bible and classical literature to create a remarkable speech in the manner of Greek funerary oration. Wills gives us not only a historical context for the speech, but a literary one as well. For that he earns my praise.
"The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States."
"The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history... the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination -- that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves." -- H.L. Mencken
