Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches (Dover Thrift Editions) [Paperback]

Abraham Lincoln (Author), Roy P. Basler (Editor), John Grafton (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 1991 | Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Representative collection of 16 masterly orations, correspondence, including "House Divided" speech at the Republican State Convention (1858), the First Inaugural Address (1861), the Gettysburg Address (1863), the Letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864), expressing regret over the wartime deaths of her 5 sons, and the Second Inaugural Address (1865).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the sixteenth president of the United States. Born on a small farm in Kentucky, he was primarily self-educated. In 1834, Lincoln won election to the Illinois state legislature, and in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois to practice law. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, but served just one two-year term. After two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Throughout his political career, Lincoln was outspoken in his opposition to the expansion of slavery, and as president, he led the United States through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards and a multiple finalist for the APA's prestigious Audie Award, Alan Sklar has narrated over 150 audiobooks, including Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings by Thomas Maier, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Named a Best Voice of 2009 by AudioFile magazine, his work has earned him a Booklist Editors' Choice Award (twice), a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and Audiobook of the Year by ForeWord magazine. The Dartmouth graduate's theatre credits include Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, and many modern roles. Alan has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA,Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY. For several years, he has been the spokesman for TracFone Wireless Co. and can often be seen and heard on TracFone radio and TV spots and infomercials."I am so pleased, as is my husband, to have found a narrator that holds our attention so well that we have come to compare every other narrator to him (you). So far we have found none with such a talent as yours. We very much plan to listen to as many of your works as we can find." ---Sandi King, a letter to Mr. Sklar

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; Unabridged edition (November 20, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486268721
• ISBN-13: 978-0486268729
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Survey of Lincoln's Best, March 10, 2002

By 

S. Miska (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

This book presents the full-length versions of some of Lincoln's best oratory feats. Great Speeches contains fifteen of Lincoln's best along with his famous letter to Mrs. Bixby, who lost all five of her sons during the war. Here is an excerpt as only Lincoln could create:
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

What you get from the book is a fabulous primary source from which to quote our sixteenth president. What you do not get is a lot of analysis on his underlying motivations. Although a short essay at the beginning of each discourse helps place Lincoln's words in historical context, you will not find a wealth of scholarly insight into why Lincoln gave each particular speech and what the implications were to the nation. Nevertheless, Great Speeches helps the reader understand this incredible man in a manner unbiased by the opinions of others.

Highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn more about President Lincoln and some of the issues he faced during a time of incredible national upheaval.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good key to understanding Lincoln, August 17, 2000

By 

"vikingbob" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

Today Abraham Lincoln's political views are often misrepresented in many ways. Some claim he was a great forward-thinking emancipator (he originally planned to let the southern states have until 1900 to abolish slavery on an individual-state basis), while others claim he was never really interested in ending slavery at all (in fact, as early as 1838 Lincoln made it clear that he thought the only practical way of ending slavery was to contain it where it already existed, so that it would then eventually die out). These are only examples. These speeches, however, are Lincoln's definitive statement, from his own mouth, of what he did and did not stand for. They are a bit tedious to read (and would obviously work better as speeches), but anyone who is interested in Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War should read this book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Great Speeches" is great!, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful collection of Lincolns most famous speeches. His "farwell to Springfield" speech, Gettysburg address and annual messages to Congress all collected in one book. Great Speeches would make an excellent reading assignment for U.S. history class.