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.

The New York Times

Garry Wills has given our nation's greatest gathering of words...new urgency...demonstrating that Lincoln's words still have power.

Dazzling...Wills is at his best, and his best may be the best that has ever been written about the Gettysburg Address as literature. Boldly revisionist and intoxicatingly original.

True to its historical antecedents and politically triumphant...A brilliantly creative reading of a critically important, indeed, culturally transforming, political document.

Key to Brief Citations

Prologue

1. Oratory of the Greek Revival

2. Gettysburg and the Culture of Death

3. The Transcendental Declaration

4. Revolution in Thought

5. Revolution in Style

Epilogue

Appendices

I. What Lincoln Said: The Text

II. Where He Said It: The Site

III. Four Funeral Orations

A. By Everett

B. By Pericles

C. By Gorgias

D. The Gettysburg Address

1. Spoken Text(?)

2. Final Text

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index to the Gettysburg Address

Index to Other Major Lincoln Texts

Name Index

Photo Credits