by Garry Wills
President Abraham Lincoln was insistent upon keeping the Union intact. Despised by the South and followed by the North, he succeeded in this difficult task, emancipating the slaves and winning the war. As a result, Lincoln himself is the subject of much discussion and scholarship. Who is Abraham Lincoln, and how did he manage the impossible?
In Garry Wills' book, Lincoln at Gettysburg, the author focuses upon Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as a means of exploring Lincoln's impact on the nation.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point in the war. According to Wills, Lincoln's speech was of even more importance than the battle itself. Lincoln redefined both oral rhetoric for the future, and the United States itself - and he did it all in 272 words.
Wills' book concentrates on the many influences that affected orations at the time of Lincoln, and how his Address both utilized prior techniques and at the same time changed them completely. The first chapter is an introduction to the Greek Revival occurring in the United States during the Romantic Era, and how Lincoln's speech exemplifies these qualities. Wills also discusses the 19th Century outlook on death, and how the rural cemetery movement would also affect the consecration at Gettysburg. His writing is mostly clear, and one does not need to have much previous knowledge of the subject in order to follow the text.
Much of the book demonstrates Lincoln's ability to discuss everything, without directly mentioning anything. He did not talk about slavery, individuals, or the South itself. His words appealed to the more important topics of the Declaration of Independence, and rebirth. Amidst all this, we learn immense amounts of information about Lincoln and his peers, so that the speech can be seen in its proper context.
What Wills has to say does not immediately set in. After the first two chapters, the direct relevance of all the details he is sharing seems not to connect. He spends a page at the end of each chapter summarizing the chapter's relationship with the Gettysburg Address, which did not seem enough. I was reading vast amounts of intriguing commentary on Lincoln and his contemporaries, but actual discussion of the Address was minimal. It was only upon completion and contemplation of the book that all those seemingly useless (albeit fascinating) facts clicked, and the importance of the Gettysburg Address could then be understood in the way Wills meant (I believe) for it to be understood.
While discussing the text with someone, I was asked the simple question "Did you come out at the end having learnt something?" The answer is an overwhelming yes. The information held between the covers is not what is generally taught in a Civil War course, due to practical time concerns, and so is fascinating in its newness. The one major difficulty with the book, however, is that the actual Address is not located at the beginning of the text, but is buried in the Appendices. Despite this initial setback, the rest of the text flows easily and is worth reading.
