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Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln's Gettyburg Address
Almost five months after the Civil War’s deadliest clash, President Abraham Lincoln and other Union leaders gathered to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The program for the occasion featured music, prayer, orations, and benedictions. In the middle of it all, the president gave a few commemorative remarks, speaking for just two minutes, delivering what we now know as the Gettysburg Address.
Challenged to mark the enormity of the battle — which had turned the tide of the war, though neither side realized it yet — Lincoln used 272 words in ten sentences to rededicate the Union to the preservation of freedom. It remains the most important statement of our nation’s commitment to personal liberty since the Revolutionary War and has become one of the most important speeches in American history, a cornerstone of who we are as a country. A century and a half later, we still hold Lincoln’s message in our hearts.
For Gettysburg Replies, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum challenged presidents, judges, historians, filmmakers, poets, actors, and others to craft 272 words of their own to celebrate Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, or a related topic that stirs their passions. President Jimmy Carter reveals how the Gettysburg Address helped bring Egypt and Israel closer at the Camp David Peace Accords. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflects on Lincoln’s dedication to the importance of civic education. General Colin Powell explains how Martin Luther King Jr. took up Lincoln’s mantle and carried it forward. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg touches on the benefits and perils of hero worship. Poet Laureate Billy Collins explores the dichotomy between the private man who wrote poetry (“My Childhood Home I See Again”) and the president who stood before all. Attorney Alan Dershowitz echoes Lincoln’s words to rally us to the freedom from weapons of mass destruction.
Gettysburg Replies features images of important Lincoln documents and artifacts, including the first copy of the address that Lincoln wrote out after delivering it, the program from the cemetery dedication, Lincoln’s presidential seal, and more. Together, these words and images create a lasting tribute not only to Lincoln himself but also the power of his devotion to freedom.
Challenged to mark the enormity of the battle — which had turned the tide of the war, though neither side realized it yet — Lincoln used 272 words in ten sentences to rededicate the Union to the preservation of freedom. It remains the most important statement of our nation’s commitment to personal liberty since the Revolutionary War and has become one of the most important speeches in American history, a cornerstone of who we are as a country. A century and a half later, we still hold Lincoln’s message in our hearts.
For Gettysburg Replies, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum challenged presidents, judges, historians, filmmakers, poets, actors, and others to craft 272 words of their own to celebrate Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, or a related topic that stirs their passions. President Jimmy Carter reveals how the Gettysburg Address helped bring Egypt and Israel closer at the Camp David Peace Accords. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflects on Lincoln’s dedication to the importance of civic education. General Colin Powell explains how Martin Luther King Jr. took up Lincoln’s mantle and carried it forward. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg touches on the benefits and perils of hero worship. Poet Laureate Billy Collins explores the dichotomy between the private man who wrote poetry (“My Childhood Home I See Again”) and the president who stood before all. Attorney Alan Dershowitz echoes Lincoln’s words to rally us to the freedom from weapons of mass destruction.
Gettysburg Replies features images of important Lincoln documents and artifacts, including the first copy of the address that Lincoln wrote out after delivering it, the program from the cemetery dedication, Lincoln’s presidential seal, and more. Together, these words and images create a lasting tribute not only to Lincoln himself but also the power of his devotion to freedom.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 2, 2016
This book, published by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, seeks to provide something new about something that is commonly read, and even not infrequently memorized, the 272 words of Lincoln's justly famous and compact Gettysburg Address, by choosing 100 people to write 272 words about the Gettysburg Address, its personal relevance, its lasting effects, a challenge I have accepted myself [1]. These people are an intriguing and diverse mix of people, and not all of them chose to write their essay. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, for example, chose to make her essay a photograph of a miniature Lincoln memorial next to the larger one in marble in Washington DC as a point that the Gettysburg Address is a compact and small discussion of the same precise moral and ethical positions that Lincoln held and expounded upon at greater length in other places over the course of his life, a wise use of a single image to express a larger concept in a particularly elegant fashion. Some of the writers, like presidents Carter, both Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, write selections, quite a few politicians do as well, while on the other side of the scale a handful of bright high school students write on at least the same level as some of the presidents about their own views of the address. Many of the writers are familiar to me because I have read their books or been familiar with their cultural efforts [2]. Some people write about the march of equality throughout time and the incomplete work to make that equality complete, while others write about the continuing need for responsibility and personal sacrifice and a devotion to unchanging moral principles. The meaning of the Address is contested still, a point that this book brings out very implicitly.
In terms of its contents, the book is very straightforward. There is an introduction of the writing of the Gettysburg Address and its context, the manuscript copies of it that are presently extant, and the way the selections were chosen. After this the book has a consistent format for the selections it chooses, showing a photograph of the manuscript, either typed or hand-written, on the left page and a title to the selection, its author, a typed and formatted version, and then a short biographical sketch of the author with a photo. After the 100 selections are given, the book gives a brief acknowledgements section and a lengthy selection of photo credits. While the editor of the book takes a pragmatic look at the progress of Lincoln's actions with regards to slavery, the book itself as a whole demonstrates that we are still not in agreement of what is fundamental about the rights given to us. After all, the Declaration of Independence speaks of our rights as being endowed by our Creator. They are inalienable and precious because they come from God and are threatened by other men who may be tempted to disregard the rights of others in search of their own selfish interests, as was done by slaveowners, and many others since them.
Yet while many of the people who write selections choose to talk about their own struggle for personal dignity, for their own pet causes and private efforts, and their own conceptions of the sorts of equality for which we ought to dedicate ourselves, the long chain of legitimacy for the rights we hold dear is left largely unstated. We look to the Gettysburg Address as a way of justifying the legitimacy of equality, Lincoln himself looked back four score and seven years to the Declaration of Independence, and the writers of that declaration like Jefferson and Adams looked to the dictates of equality under God (see, for example, Galatians 3:26-29) as justifying their own defense of equality. Yet the equality that we seek to justify often amounts to a rejection of the moral standards of God, who made us equal under His eyes. Yet if we reject a divine source of equality because we do not like the moral standards that come from that same source, we cut out from under us any ground to a lasting equality, because we make our civil rights dependent on men, on governments and on the practice of traditions, making control of the government to enforce our own ideas of equality a matter of the utmost importance, even if it rejects the equal humanity of those who oppose us because they see equality in a different sense. Just as in Lincoln's time, so it is in our time that our nation is imperiled because we lack a common definition of equality, or even a recognition that we often attack the very source of the equality we support so strongly and feel so passionately about. This book is an artifact of the struggle for the soul of our contemporary society, and the fractured perspective we have because we are not often profound enough students of history to see beyond our own times and situations.
[1] See below:
At times he spoke to the leaders of a nation like San Marino, telling them that, "Although your dominion is small..." At times he spoke to the mother of a soldier who was to be shot for running from the fear of death in battle. At times he spoke to all peoples at all times, telling them truths written on the rock for all to see. At times he spoke to those who had gathered of the need to give those who have been freed the rights to make that freedom stick, while at other times he spoke to crowds of the need to show malice towards none and charity towards all, so that our nation's wounds could be bound, and healed by the gradual process of time.
For these sentiments he was branded by some men as a coward, and for others as a traitor who must die for expressing these sentiments to a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal and untroubled by the fact that by their traditions some men were enslaved, and that the women and children who were theoretically their equals were often preferred to be silent and without defense against their wishes. And so he was murdered, cut down while spending a night in the theater, so that our nation may live. And we, the living, have dedicated ourselves to defending the equality of all men before God, and yet we no more agree on what equality is sacred and what is profane than in the past. And yet we seek to think as Lincoln thought and to do as he did.
[2] See, for example:
Ken Burns:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Richard Etulain:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Judith Sheindlin:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Allen C. Guelzo:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Harold Holzer:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
In terms of its contents, the book is very straightforward. There is an introduction of the writing of the Gettysburg Address and its context, the manuscript copies of it that are presently extant, and the way the selections were chosen. After this the book has a consistent format for the selections it chooses, showing a photograph of the manuscript, either typed or hand-written, on the left page and a title to the selection, its author, a typed and formatted version, and then a short biographical sketch of the author with a photo. After the 100 selections are given, the book gives a brief acknowledgements section and a lengthy selection of photo credits. While the editor of the book takes a pragmatic look at the progress of Lincoln's actions with regards to slavery, the book itself as a whole demonstrates that we are still not in agreement of what is fundamental about the rights given to us. After all, the Declaration of Independence speaks of our rights as being endowed by our Creator. They are inalienable and precious because they come from God and are threatened by other men who may be tempted to disregard the rights of others in search of their own selfish interests, as was done by slaveowners, and many others since them.
Yet while many of the people who write selections choose to talk about their own struggle for personal dignity, for their own pet causes and private efforts, and their own conceptions of the sorts of equality for which we ought to dedicate ourselves, the long chain of legitimacy for the rights we hold dear is left largely unstated. We look to the Gettysburg Address as a way of justifying the legitimacy of equality, Lincoln himself looked back four score and seven years to the Declaration of Independence, and the writers of that declaration like Jefferson and Adams looked to the dictates of equality under God (see, for example, Galatians 3:26-29) as justifying their own defense of equality. Yet the equality that we seek to justify often amounts to a rejection of the moral standards of God, who made us equal under His eyes. Yet if we reject a divine source of equality because we do not like the moral standards that come from that same source, we cut out from under us any ground to a lasting equality, because we make our civil rights dependent on men, on governments and on the practice of traditions, making control of the government to enforce our own ideas of equality a matter of the utmost importance, even if it rejects the equal humanity of those who oppose us because they see equality in a different sense. Just as in Lincoln's time, so it is in our time that our nation is imperiled because we lack a common definition of equality, or even a recognition that we often attack the very source of the equality we support so strongly and feel so passionately about. This book is an artifact of the struggle for the soul of our contemporary society, and the fractured perspective we have because we are not often profound enough students of history to see beyond our own times and situations.
[1] See below:
At times he spoke to the leaders of a nation like San Marino, telling them that, "Although your dominion is small..." At times he spoke to the mother of a soldier who was to be shot for running from the fear of death in battle. At times he spoke to all peoples at all times, telling them truths written on the rock for all to see. At times he spoke to those who had gathered of the need to give those who have been freed the rights to make that freedom stick, while at other times he spoke to crowds of the need to show malice towards none and charity towards all, so that our nation's wounds could be bound, and healed by the gradual process of time.
For these sentiments he was branded by some men as a coward, and for others as a traitor who must die for expressing these sentiments to a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal and untroubled by the fact that by their traditions some men were enslaved, and that the women and children who were theoretically their equals were often preferred to be silent and without defense against their wishes. And so he was murdered, cut down while spending a night in the theater, so that our nation may live. And we, the living, have dedicated ourselves to defending the equality of all men before God, and yet we no more agree on what equality is sacred and what is profane than in the past. And yet we seek to think as Lincoln thought and to do as he did.
[2] See, for example:
Ken Burns:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Richard Etulain:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Judith Sheindlin:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Allen C. Guelzo:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
Harold Holzer:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
March 17, 2019
For the most part good replies to the address. Could use a better title and the book cover is dull.
February 3, 2018
You have 272 words to make an impact what do you say? I found myself thinking this question and wondering how I would answer it. This book is full of people who do from the two Bush's to President Obama, from Dr. Tyson to Judge Judy, we have people from all walks paying homage to a great man who reminds us that we still have work to do
February 7, 2018
Many thing to think about. How far we've come. How much work is left to do.
April 11, 2018
When I got this book I thought it was about replies DURING Lincoln's lifetime...I wasn't aware it was about people now. Glad I read it, though!! Some of the replies are wonderful! MUST READ!!!
April 9, 2020
It isn't easy to give only three starts to Gettysburg Replies. The concept behind the book is superb. In 2013 the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation asked some 120 people -- educators, authors, students and others -- to write a 272-word essay to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, the most famous oration in American history. The Civil War president's speech on the battlefield in 1863 only months after the bloody conflict was composed of 272 words. The contributors could write about Gettysburg, America or anything else they believed was appropriate.
Culling of the contributors likely would have improved the final product. A key problem with Gettysburg Replies is that a lot of the essays are mediocre. Some give only brief synopses of Lincoln's speech. A few corporate executives are seemingly content to promote their companies. Some pieces do not possess a fully developed theme.
At the same time, several essays are splendid. Matthew Pinsker, a history professor, uncovers some unknown history behind the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln got the inspiration for the idea that the dead had "baptised" Gettysburg with "a new birth of freedom" from a New York Times account by journalist Samuel Wilkeson. He had witnessed the battle of Gettysburg and his son Bayard had died. The story of Bayard Wilkeson's death is sobering.
Former President Jimmy Carter provides a stirring anecdote about a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield amid the Camp David peace talks in 1978. The president and the leaders of Israel and Palestine took some time off to see the site. And South African artist Babalwa Mhlauli draws a parallel between her father's life as an anti-apartheid activist and Lincoln's. Both men were murdered for their outspoken views.
Culling of the contributors likely would have improved the final product. A key problem with Gettysburg Replies is that a lot of the essays are mediocre. Some give only brief synopses of Lincoln's speech. A few corporate executives are seemingly content to promote their companies. Some pieces do not possess a fully developed theme.
At the same time, several essays are splendid. Matthew Pinsker, a history professor, uncovers some unknown history behind the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln got the inspiration for the idea that the dead had "baptised" Gettysburg with "a new birth of freedom" from a New York Times account by journalist Samuel Wilkeson. He had witnessed the battle of Gettysburg and his son Bayard had died. The story of Bayard Wilkeson's death is sobering.
Former President Jimmy Carter provides a stirring anecdote about a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield amid the Camp David peace talks in 1978. The president and the leaders of Israel and Palestine took some time off to see the site. And South African artist Babalwa Mhlauli draws a parallel between her father's life as an anti-apartheid activist and Lincoln's. Both men were murdered for their outspoken views.
December 8, 2015
Gettysburg Replies had one simple concept - ask thousands of people to write a response to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and do so in exactly 272 words, the length of the speech. Over 1000 were received, and 100 are included in this book. The format presents the responses - in most cases handwritten letters - on the left page, with the transcription and brief biography of the author on the right page.
As might be expected it is impossible to adequately review the book. Each essay is as much a reflection of its author as it is Lincoln. Some are quickly forgettable, but most are eminently insightful. Authors include all of the living Presidents from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, many political figures, a few celebrities, some corporate CEOs, and perhaps best positioned to carry on the work of Lincoln's "unfinished business," several high school seniors and educators.
Also expected is that some of the essays are repetitive - "seven score and ten" becomes no longer clever after seeing it for the seventh time - but there are some gems as well. Particularly interesting are essays by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and President Obama. Lesser known names bring forth the spirit of the occasion, the connections between the Civil Rights struggles, and even today's fear of terrorism.
Several eminent Lincoln scholars offer their informed views, but because of my background in science I was drawn the essay by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who acknowledged how Lincoln's creation of the National Academy of Sciences set our nation on "a course of scientifically enlightened governance."
[Note that in the spirit of the book and the speech, the above review is exactly 272 words.]
As might be expected it is impossible to adequately review the book. Each essay is as much a reflection of its author as it is Lincoln. Some are quickly forgettable, but most are eminently insightful. Authors include all of the living Presidents from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, many political figures, a few celebrities, some corporate CEOs, and perhaps best positioned to carry on the work of Lincoln's "unfinished business," several high school seniors and educators.
Also expected is that some of the essays are repetitive - "seven score and ten" becomes no longer clever after seeing it for the seventh time - but there are some gems as well. Particularly interesting are essays by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and President Obama. Lesser known names bring forth the spirit of the occasion, the connections between the Civil Rights struggles, and even today's fear of terrorism.
Several eminent Lincoln scholars offer their informed views, but because of my background in science I was drawn the essay by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who acknowledged how Lincoln's creation of the National Academy of Sciences set our nation on "a course of scientifically enlightened governance."
[Note that in the spirit of the book and the speech, the above review is exactly 272 words.]
May 17, 2015
Here is an interesting collection of essays responding to the greatest speech ever given in the history America. I found many to be interesting, with some trying too hard to reach the lofty heights where the Gettysburg Address hovers alone. Overall it's a unique project and an important one. If only Lincoln had known how, over 150 years later, his words would still be inspiring generations, how in awe he would be.
April 26, 2015
A unique collection of personal thoughts and reflections on the Gettysburg Address. Reading this collection will certainly make you reflect on the profound and ever lasting impact of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Certainly a book to add to your must read list.
June 22, 2015
I liked the different opinions and interpretations of the importance of the Gettysburg Address by many prestigious people. Beat to see the actual letters too from each individual. History buffs would enjoy!
February 18, 2016
272 words. Wise responses -- but none as great as the original.
August 4, 2022
WELL YA KNOW, IT'S ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews