Rating: 
Summary: Breathing life into a vital slice of history
Review: Garry Wills has done it again.
His analytical skills are so incisive and commonsensical that you wonder how anyone could interpret the world differently. "Gettysburg" reveals his talents anew. From his exposition of the 19th century urban cemeteries movement, to Americans' fascination with all things Greek to his analysis of Lincoln's personal and public views of slavery, Wills satisfied my hunger for information while leaving me panting for more. Wills demolishes a number of persistent myths about Gettysburg. No, Lincoln did not write his address at the last minute on the back of an envelope; he had vast respect for the spoken word and there is ample evidence that he prepared his address thoroughly long before the Gettysburg dedication. Wills's description of the grisly, wretched work of burying and reburying battlefield casualties is a necessary counterbalance to the tales of soldierly courage and strategy that are the sum of other histories. Even the appendices are fascinating. Wills includes the text of the 2-hour oration of Edward Everett, the dedication's main speaker, whose work has often been diminished in relation to Lincoln's 3-minute speech. Reading Everett's long but excellent speech followed by Lincoln's short "remarks" has the effect of putting you at the scene.
Most importantly, Wills explains how Lincoln's address subtly but unalterably reinterpreted our country's founding documents. After Gettysburg, the idea that "all men are created equal" became a cornerstone of the American Dream, sowing seeds that sprung up in the many civil rights movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.
A remarkable and important book!
Rating:
Summary: It belongs to the ages
Review: Garry Wills has illuminated Lincoln, the Civil War and the Founding Fathers in a masterful little volume that is a brilliant explanation of modern America and its fever-dreams of freedom. Whether neatly demolishing myths (Edward Everett's 3 1/2-hour address did NOT bore the crowds; Lincoln's 3-minute address was NOT a disappointment to that same audience) or demonstrating the well-known horrors of that war in less-known, unglorious terms -- tiers of graves, tumbled charnel fields of bones -- Wills delivers a powerful message in a taut, graceful way that echoes the Gettysburg Address itself. Any reader who has ever grown to consider the mighty Address just another piece of reverent rhetoric soon learns, at Wills' hands, what broadsides of meaning thundered from each of Lincoln's clauses. Essential reading for any American who wants to know what America is all about.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Garry Wills has written a marvelous and meanigful book that adds luster and new life to a speech that most of us heard and did not fully appreciate in school. He suggests that the few words marked a transition in American thought that not many recognized at the time. Taking the ideas back to their intellectual and emotional bases, he emphasises in part just how different the world view was when the speech was given. Language and ideas have chnaged so profoundly that we may not understand that we do not understand. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Garry Wills has written a marvelous and meanigful book that adds luster and new life to a speech that most of us heard and did not fully appreciate in school. He suggests that the few words marked a transition in American thought that not many recognized at the time. Taking the ideas back to their intellectual and emotional bases, he emphasises in part just how different the world view was when the speech was given. Language and ideas have chnaged so profoundly that we may not understand that we do not understand. Wonderful!
Rating: 
Summary: Adept analysis and compelling prose
Review: Garry Wills is one of our best chroniclers of American culture, and he is particularly adept at offering insights that show the impact of historical events on current events. From his vision of Washington as the prototypical American to the fall of 'Nixon Agonistes,' he provides cogent arguments for why we are the way we are.In this book, where he focuses on the simple and short speech given by Lincoln at the dedication of a war cemetery, Wills provides a clear and lucid analysis of both the style and content of the address. By taking the opportunity to place the reader deep in the historical context (uncomfortably deep, some may feel) he gives us the freedom to look outside our comfortable perspective at a seemingly familiar event; in the process, he reveals the heroism of the unlikely man who may well have been the greatest American statesman.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The South continues to refight the Civil War
Review: How typical of the reader from South Carolina to quote H. L. Mencken, a racist and anti-Semite, to reveal the "truth" about the Gettysburg Address. How many years ago was the Civil War? How many years will it take for Southerners to admit that they were on the wrong side of history?
Rating:
Summary: What a pleasant surprise
Review: I actually ordered this book by accident. I had decided that I didn't want the book, because a 300 page, 80,000 word analysis of a 272 word speech seemed ridiculous to me. I pictured in my mind a historical root-word analysis of the Gettysburg Address and it made me shudder. Somehow, I clicked to buy anyway and I'm very glad that I did. The book is about the Civil War, and the reasons Lincoln thought that it needed to be fought. It is not your typical Civil War novel with an analysis of this battle and then the next battle. Instead it tries to answer the question, why battle at all? Lincoln is a much more complex individual than I had ever though and his reasons for his actions (as well as his humility and sympathy for others) may surprise you. This is a well-written, brief book and I recommend it to anyone interested in U.S. history.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a post-graduate thesis.
Review: I appreciated the analysis of Lincoln's address in context of the periods literary conventions. However, this book reads like a post-graduate thesis. It tries to stretch Lincoln's 272 words into 300+ pages. It's a worthwhile read for those who read everything written about Lincoln. I think the Pulitzer Prize was a bit too generous.
Rating: 
Summary: Much less here than meets the eye.
Review: I don't get it. What IS it about the Gettysburg Address that left-liberals like Wills find so profound? Do they somehow see it as some form of grand permission to expand the powers of government ad infinitum? This book contains some interesting historical background, some semi-interesting literary analysis, but does nothing to make the G.B. any more than what it is: a nicely written little dedicatory speech at a cemetery. It is not and should not be regarded as one of America's founding documents.
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