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    The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
    The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
    The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows

    Written by Gabor Boritt

    Narrated by Michael Kramer

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 29, 2006
    ISBN9781400173518
    Author

    Gabor Boritt

    Gabor Boritt is the Robert Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Born in World War II Hungary, he participated as a teenager in the 1956 revolution against the Soviet Union. He escaped to the United States, where he received his higher education and became one of the finest Lincoln scholars. His life story is soon to be the subject of a feature-length documentary film. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of sixteen books about Lincoln and the Civil War. Boritt and his wife live on a farm near the Gettysburg battlefield, where they have raised their three sons.

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    • 3/5
      While Boritt covers everything surrounding Gettysburg from the height of the grass, bodies and how they were buried, slave and free activities, and more, he leaves out an in-depth analysis of the speech itself (or any analysis for that matter), which for me is a gross slight. His attention to everything surrounding the Battle, day of the speech, weather, and details galore miss the fact that he leaves out what I would consider the gospel of Gettysburg, which is big mistake plus the description of everything else tends to get tedious and dry.