$5.

Detailed. Complex. Enlightening. It requires careful reading. ( )

Detailed and thorough, if dense at times and, perhaps, bordering on pedantic. I came to this examination of Lincoln's famous speech as I was re-reading Shelby Foote's Civil War: A Narrative, and I wanted to dig deeper into the address itself. Boy, did I dig deeper. ( )

I wish the entire text had been similar to the final chapter "Revolution in Style" where the author spent time looking at sentence construction, brevity, grammar, stuff like that. The previous 100 pages were really mostly about the political environment. The level of scholarship is undeniable, but it was a bit of a yawner for me, though I like Garry Wills's other work such as "Nixon Agonistes." ( )

If you're interested in the language of the civil war era and why it was considered the age of great orators, this is a fantastic book to read. It is a bit dry in nature, but I was completely fascinated by it. Includes the entire or partial texts of many of Lincoln's speeches as well as those of some of his contempories. Explains in detail why the Gettysburg address became such an important moment in history. ( )