Semper Terrific!
I read Lincoln at Gettysburg, which traces how Lincoln's speech, which reframes the role and meaning of the Declaration of Independence and purposes of the forefathers, won the civil war and changed American identity (taa daa!). So, you know, it's a pretty good speech. Wills' background on the political and cultural influences on this moment were very a-ha enjoyable.
With no other motive than getting to the next book on my list, I dove into Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, which, as it turns out, is a record of her pilgrimages to sites related to the Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley assassinations. Also a good read, and, as far as I know, some good historical work couched in rock-critic essay style (the as-I-see-it big picture + juicy bits of trivia). Not as acutely hilarious as all the raves she gets from Conan O'Brian and John Stewart caused me to expect, but insightful and witty in a likable, self-referential Let's Go: History kind of way. O'Brian and Stewart, by the way, voice Robert Todd Lincoln and James A. Garfield, respectively, in the audio book version. This is only distracting if you're not already put off having the entire book narrated by Violet Incredible.
One of Vowell's closing observations (um, Spoiler Alert?) is also about the importance of rhetoric. While heroic, Lincoln's actual political agenda, in speech and action (as Wills also reflects), was not as forwardly all-persons-are-created-equal as he might now be credited (granted, it's hard to be that socially progressive when you're trying to preserve the Union). This mythic role was, in part, secured by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. After taking in Wills' assertions that Lincoln's Gettysburg address reframed our national identity, I'm quite intrigued by the idea that King ends up reframing Lincoln's identity as the egalitarian liberator.
(Although Vowell doesn't provide any footnotes. Or, perhaps more accurately, they are invisible. Taa daa!)
With no other motive than getting to the next book on my list, I dove into Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, which, as it turns out, is a record of her pilgrimages to sites related to the Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley assassinations. Also a good read, and, as far as I know, some good historical work couched in rock-critic essay style (the as-I-see-it big picture + juicy bits of trivia). Not as acutely hilarious as all the raves she gets from Conan O'Brian and John Stewart caused me to expect, but insightful and witty in a likable, self-referential Let's Go: History kind of way. O'Brian and Stewart, by the way, voice Robert Todd Lincoln and James A. Garfield, respectively, in the audio book version. This is only distracting if you're not already put off having the entire book narrated by Violet Incredible.
One of Vowell's closing observations (um, Spoiler Alert?) is also about the importance of rhetoric. While heroic, Lincoln's actual political agenda, in speech and action (as Wills also reflects), was not as forwardly all-persons-are-created-equal as he might now be credited (granted, it's hard to be that socially progressive when you're trying to preserve the Union). This mythic role was, in part, secured by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. After taking in Wills' assertions that Lincoln's Gettysburg address reframed our national identity, I'm quite intrigued by the idea that King ends up reframing Lincoln's identity as the egalitarian liberator.
(Although Vowell doesn't provide any footnotes. Or, perhaps more accurately, they are invisible. Taa daa!)