The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows [Hardcover]

Gabor Boritt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2006

The literature of the Gettysburg Address tends to fall into one of two extremes. At one end are those books that maintain that Lincoln wrote his speech hastily, even on a scrap of paper on the train en route from Washington to Gettysburg. In this version, Lincoln delivered his remarks to an uncomprehending public, which applauded politely, failing to appreciate his genius. Many of the books that argue this point of view are out of print today, but the myths and legends live on.At the other end of the spectrum are those books that argue that Lincoln's remarks were written with great care and that they altered the course of the Civil War, even of the country. This point of view exalts the Gettysburg Address at the expense of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been made public eleven months earlier.Gabor Boritt, a Lincoln and Civil War scholar who teaches at Gettysburg College and lives in an old farmhouse adjacent to the battlefield, says that Lincoln's remarks were written rapidly, though not at the last minute, and they received attention, though not nearly so much attention as the lengthy remarks of the featured speaker, Edward Everett. But Lincoln's address was largely forgotten for decades afterward. It had no effect on the Civil War and played no role in American history until the twentieth century.Boritt narrates the events of November 19, 1863, as well as the events preceding and following the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery, which was the occasion for Lincoln's remarks. He describes the conditions in Gettysburg in the aftermath of the battle-the stench of rotting corpses of horses and mules filling the air, wounded soldiers occupying hospitals and houses everywhere, and the damage done to roads and houses that were still being repaired when the cemetery was dedicated. He describes Lincoln's arrival by train, the cheering crowds that applauded the president that night before the ceremony, and the events of the great day itself, as well as the immediate aftermath of the ceremonies as the town tried to return to its pre-battle life.Boritt's vivid narrative is filled with colorful, little-known details. It re-creates the events, but it also assesses the significance of Lincoln's remarks and places them in their proper historical context as no book has before, showing how the remarks that were quickly forgotten took on a new life decades later and became the most famous speech in American history.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this engrossing study, Civil War scholar Boritt (editor of The Lincoln Enigma) offers a revealing history of that most famous piece of American oratory, the Gettysburg Address. Boritt opens with an evocative description of a stench-filled, corpse-strewn Gettysburg on July 4, 1863, after the battle. When Lincoln arrived a few months later to dedicate the national cemetery, he had an important task: "to explain to the people," writes Borritt, in plain, powerful prose, "why the bloodletting must go on." After vividly recreating the delivery of the address, Boritt discusses the speech's mixed reception. Republican newspapers praised it; Democrats, viewing it as the beginning of Lincoln's re-election campaign, belittled or tried to ignore it; one Democratic newspaper called the speech a "mawkish harangue." Just as bad, Lincoln's graceful oratory was garbled in transmission to newspapers. Most interesting is Boritt's recounting of how, after Lincoln's assassination, the speech was mostly forgotten until the 1880s, when Gettysburg increasingly became a symbol of a reunion between North and South, and the Gettysburg Address took on the sheen of America's "sacred scriptures." Lincoln's poetic language, says Boritt, helps the speech live on, and the message of "sacrificial redemption" still speaks to Americans today. This elegant account will delight readers who enjoyed Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg. (Lengthy appendixes parsing drafts of the speech, however, will interest mainly aficionados.) 16 pages of b&w illus., and b&w illus. throughout. (Nov. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Like Garry Wills in Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992), Boritt explores the circumstances of the Gettysburg Address. Setting the stage for his rhetorical analysis, Boritt describes the Gettysburg area in the months following the July 1863 battle. Corpses, burial workers, and field hospitals reminded visitors of the battle's scale of devastation and, so it appeared, the incompleteness of the Union victory. To comfort and encourage, then, was the agenda of the cemetery ceremony at which Lincoln spoke the following November. Famously preceded by a conventionally orotund funeral oration, Lincoln's remarks possessed such austerity and aspiration that they became a consecrated credo of American democracy. Existing in several variants in Lincoln's hand and in contemporaneous news accounts, the remarks prompt questions about which text contains the authentic Gettysburg Address, an intriguing but ultimately inconclusive endeavor that Boritt works over in appendixes. With his narrative focus on the dedication of November 19, 1863, Boritt's account has a freshness appealing in such an exhaustively examined subject. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743288203
• ISBN-13: 978-0743288200
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Gettysburg Gospel" a review, November 6, 2006

By 

Bradley R. Hoch (Gettysburg, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows (Hardcover)

Gabor Boritt's "The Gettysburg Gospel" is a stunning achievement. It is a superb history of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by a professional historian and masterful storyteller after a lifetime of exhaustive research. Boritt is at the top of his game.

The first chapter places the reader in the horror of Gettysburg immediately after the battle. Hundreds of books have been written about the Civil War and the battle of Gettysburg, but Boritt chooses the less well known "After Battle" to introduce us to this nightmare of time and place. No battlefield glory here. The hot July stench of rotting human and animal flesh that pervaded the town and for miles around; the anguish of soldiers' wives, fathers, and mothers opening grave after grave, searching for their loved ones; and the sadness of nurses and doctors caring for men, dying in agonizing pain, treated with hopelessly inadequate resources and nineteenth-century medicine are brought home with stark reality. Boritt notes that one exhausted nurse (Emily Souder, in a letter home) admitted that after an emotionally overwhelming day of work, she buried her head in her pillows so as to block out the cries of dying men, heard clearly through her bedroom window. Agony and despair were aplenty.

Lincoln came to Gettysburg to redirect America's vision toward the stars, to give ultimate meaning to suffering and dying. And Boritt tells the story remarkably well. His description of the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery and the delivery of Lincoln's address is meticulously researched, thoroughly referenced, and carefully reasoned. No wild claims here. The historian guides us through the myriad of assertions and differing remembrances so as to provide us a thoughtful account of Lincoln and his work at Gettysburg. Boritt's historical research will become the benchmark for all others. Exceptional.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was a superb piece of writing, much akin to political poetry. But with the end of the cemetery dedication, the history of the Address is only half told, and Boritt moves on skillfully to document how we the people recreated Lincoln's Address - in ways that the president probably never envisioned or intended. It seems that, for one reason or another, we need heroes and, in a sense, create them over and over again. In the decades after the Civil War, the martyred president achieved god-like status and his pronouncements became sacred words uttered from on high. Perhaps we needed a Lincoln myth in order to nation-build following the Civil War when "these united States" became "the United States." Perhaps we needed a hero to bind up the nation's wounds, to reconstruct North and South into one people. And perhaps there was a darker side. Perhaps nation and Lincoln myth were what held the vision of white America as it ignored the issue of race and failed to live out its "All men are created equal" creed for the next one hundred years. Boritt lays this all before us, gives us the history, the facts, and allows us to make our own judgments. Outstanding.

"The Gettysburg Gospel" is now the standard against which all other histories of the Gettysburg Address will be judged. This book should be read by every American.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lincoln and the Gettysburg Gospel is a Gem of Exegetical Clarification of the greatest political speech in world history., May 30, 2007

By 

C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows (Hardcover)

The Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863. The battle had been fought in July but now a National Cemetery was to dedicated honoring the Union dead who had died that the United States might live.
What a day it was ! A beautiful autumn crisp with the promise of a warm sky sailing serenly over the sight of the bloodiest batlle in American history. A day when the renowned orator Edward Everett spoke for over two hours drawing analogies between Gettysburg and those men who died to preserve Athenian democracy. Everett gave a detailed account of the battle emphasizing the legitimacy of the Union effort. He also spoke with insight on the superiority of the federal government to which the individual states pledged their loyalty.
And then...after the bands and the songs, the prayers and the cheers were silent the sixteenth President of the United States rose to speak. He had a mild form of smallpox; had lost his son Willie to death in the White House and had a son Tad who was ill back home in Washington DC.
Lincoln spoke his 272 words concluding with his immortal words, "''that the goverment of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Lincoln drew on a lifetime of study to produce this masterpiece. The Declaration of Independence; the oratory of Webster and Clay, Shakespeare and the Bible all played a role in his crafting of the speech. If the Emancipation Proclamation was prose genius then the Gettysburg Address is poetry sublime in its assertion of indivdual freedom and the right of human beings to breathe free air.
The speech was neglected, for the most part, by contemporary press accounts. Only in the 1880s when the movement to reconcile NOrth and South picked up steam did it take on an importance in the American heart that has never been usurped, The GA inspired black fighters for Civil Rights as the twentieth century led to a cry for racial equality in our nation. Men like Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela in South Africa were inspired by Lincoln's words.
Boritt's book is divided into several sections. The first two hundred pages deal with the account of the night and the day Lincoln spent in Gettysburg in 1863. We learn of the horrific battlefield casualties and see closeup the preparations made and the carrying out of the ceremony on November 19th. Other sections deal with the five authentic copies of the Gettysburg Address; the complete text of Edward Everett's two hour oration that day; an extensive bibliography and notes. Professor Boritt also shows us pictures of the drafts as written in longhand by Lincoln.
The book is also a fascinating look into how the Gettysburg Address achieved mythic fame since it was first uttered on that November day. In a moving final chapter we read the address in the context of a 9-11 obervance of the attack on the World Trade Center.
As long as our United States lives we all pray that the Gettysburg Address will be there to inspire us to work for equality and justice for all of our citizens regardless of race, religion or political affiliation.
Boritt is one of the best scholars on the life of Lincoln and the Civil War era. Anyone who teaches the Civil War in the classroom should make use of this outstanding work of scholarship and love.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Speech, January 16, 2007

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows (Hardcover)

With the passage of time, the Battle of Gettysburg of July 1 -- 3, 1863) and President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863, dedicating the Soldier's National Cemetery have become American icons. They help define for many people the basic values of our country. In his book "The Gettysburg Gospel: The Speech Nobody Knows" Professor Gabor Boritt offers a detailed account of the Gettysburg Address, including its background, reception, and meaning. As Boritt shows, the Gettysburg Address has become a statement for Americans of "who we are" as a people. His book illuminates the Gettysburg Address and, through it, he illuminates the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War itself. Boritt is Professor of Civil War studies and director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. He has written extensively on the Civil War.

In the opening chapters of the book, Boritt emphasizes the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, including the great suffering of the many wounded soldiers left behind to be cared for after the Battle. He discusses the decision to set aside a portion of the battlefield as a cemetery for the Union dead and the invitation extended to Lincoln to speak at the dedication of the cemetery. The book includes substantial discussion of contested issues in prior studies of Lincoln's speech including the circumstances of the composition of the various drafts. In great detail, Boritt discusses Lincoln's train trip to Gettysburg, the celebrations in the town during the evening befor the now famous dedication, and the mixed reception the speech received when it was delivered.

But these discussions, interesting as they are, do not form the major theme of the book. Boritt shows how the historical record is confused and inconclusive, in many respects, about the speech and its reception. The full significance of the speech became appreciated only about 20 years later, after the end of Reconstruction. Boritt points out, insightfully, that Lincoln's address had the aim of furthering the Union war effort by justifying the need of the terrible sacrifice of life that had occurred already at Gettysburg and elsewhere and that would need to occur elsewhere to realize the war aims of the United States. Boritt also has valuable things to say in contrasting the reception of the Emancipation Proclamation with that of the Gettysburg Address. The Proclamation was regarded as Lincoln's achievement while the Reconstruction period was underway. With the end of Reconstruction, the Gettysburg Address claimed greater public attention, both due to its poetic eloquence and to the interpretation it was given by some, due to its stark, abstract character, in promoting sectional reconciliation and national unity rather than Reconstruction. Throughout the book, Boritt has important things to say about the relationship between Reconstruction and Reconciliation in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Among the things I liked best about Boritt's book was the detailed attention it gives to the speech of Edward Everett, which discussed the history of the battle, the role women played after the battle in taking care of the wounded, and the need for sectional reconciliation following the conflict. (Everett's speech is given in full as an appendix to the book.) Boritt discusses as well American art and sculpture and about how Lincoln is depicted, both with respect to the Emancipation Proclamation and with respect to the Gettysburg Address. Boritt gives great attention to the religious aspect of the Address -- as it shows Lincoln moving towards a theism but not towards a denominational religion. (Lincoln's movement might reflect an important religious attitude in the United States as a whole.) He also discusses the role of the Gettysburg Address in what many scholars have referred to as America's Civil Religion -- its sense of itself and its purpose -- and American nationalism. Boritt also sees the Gettysburg Address as a precursor of Lincoln's Second Innaugural Address.

The book includes an excellent annotated biblography of the Battle of Gettysburg and of Lincoln's speech which will be useful to readers wanting to explore these matters further. The book beautifully combines close factual detail with meditations on the lasting meaning and significance of the Gettysburg Address. The book will be of great interest to readers wanting to think about and expand their understanding of Lincoln's great speech.

Robin Friedman