Lincoln at Gettysburg
The Words That Remade America
Simon & Schuster · Print & ebook · November 14, 2006
In a masterly work, Garry Wills shows how Lincoln reached back to the Declaration of Independence to write the greatest speech in the nation’s history.
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- Who it’s for
- A close look at how Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address drew on the Declaration to reshape national meaning.
- Themes
- Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Political rhetoric and national identity, Lincoln in historical context
- Genres
- Civil War Era, Presidents & World Leaders, Speeches Collection
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For younger readers: Lincoln in His Own Words, Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln, Gettysburg
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In a masterly work, Garry Wills shows how Lincoln reached back to the Declaration of Independence to write the greatest speech in the nation’s history. The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead he gave the whole nation “a new birth of freedom” in the space of a mere 272 words.
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His entire life and previous training and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece. By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world and to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns, and how Lincoln wove a spell that has not yet been broken.
Words in Context
A close look at how Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address drew on the Declaration to reshape national meaning.
Come here for
- The force of political language in a defining American speech
- A fresh perspective on words you may think you already know
Expect
- The address read in its historical and cultural frame
- A serious account of Lincoln’s intellectual and political moment
Where it sits
| Civil War Era | 80% |
|---|---|
| Presidents & World Leaders | 64% |
| Speeches Collection | 35% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Political Lives
- Presidents & World Leaders
- Civil War Era
- Authors
- Garry Wills
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster
- Published
- November 14, 2006
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address · Political rhetoric and national identity · Lincoln in historical context
- Reading lane
- Political Lives