Lincoln at Gettysburg

Historian Garry Wills argues that Abraham Lincoln's 272-word address at the dedication of Gettysburg's national cemetery on November 19, 1863, changed how Americans understood the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and so remade the nation. He disputes the idea that the speech was dashed off on the back of an envelope, holding that Lincoln crafted it carefully over weeks. Wills compares it with the oration Edward Everett gave the same day, traces the influence of the Greek revival and transcendentalist thought, and analyzes Lincoln's spare style, from dropped connecting words to deliberate repetition. Published in 1992, the book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

Ryan Holiday said the book blew him away and listed it among the very best books he read in 2024.