The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation

by Jonathan Hennessey, Aaron McConnell (Art), Tom Orzechowski (Lettering)

The Gettysburg A Graphic Adaptation is a full-color illustrated look at Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech, the bloody battle of the Civil War that prompted it, and how they led to a defining point in the history of America.
 
Most of us can recall “Four score and seven years ago,” but much of what we know about Abraham Lincoln’s oration has been forgotten after high school.
 
Using Lincoln’s words as a keystone, and drawing from first-person accounts, The Gettysburg Address shows us the events through the eyes of those who lived through the events of the War, from soldiers to slaves.
 
Writer Jonathan Hennessey and illustrator Aaron McConnell illuminate history with vibrant, detailed graphics and captions that deliver a fresh understanding of this vital speech.

Genres: History, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Civil War, Comics, War, Politics

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Can’t imagine your life without fiction? Can’t imagine your life without nonfiction? Then you’re a lot like me. I often find nothing more entertaining than some scrupulously researched historical account; and no better learning experience than a thoroughly made-up-from-whole-cloth story.

So I read (and write) both — often in deep dives into the fascinating backgrounds of everyday people and everyday things. And I marvel constantly at the many ways how writing efforts in one genre inspire, sharpen, and elevate the quality of work in the other. Whatever knack for storytelling I might be said to have makes my books on history like The U.S. Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation more captivating, engaging, and accessible. And at the same time, I plow the best of the best of my research discoveries into the characters, settings, themes, and scenarios of my narrative material. If you check out my time-travel-turned-inside-out epic, Epochalypse, I hope you’ll agree you would have to look pretty hard for a more fully realized and diverse milieu in the time travel story universe.

I was born to a military family on a U.S. Army base in New England and raised, like many, in a town steeped in American history. This I only came to fully appreciate as an adult when I came boomeranging back to an interest in politics, actual people, and the real world after an extended, hazy interregnum of fantasy novels, gaming, comic books, video games, and anime. When not writing or reading I’m heavily into cycling (preferably for transportation or travel rather than speed), films, hunting for seasonal waterfalls in the nearby California foothills (with or without a pocket full of podcasts), chasing down hard to find craft sodas, or swooning over vintage graphic design in some slightly downtrodden but capacious Midwestern antique mall.

Find out more at jonathanhennessey.com, where you can join an email list for respectfully infrequent and non-invasive updates about new projects and releases.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book revelational. Broken down into chapters named after passages of the Gettysburg Address, the book covers much more than the titular speech, from the founding of our country to the motivations and consequences of the Civil War. My education in American history is sorely lacking, and The Gettysburg Address taught me many things that I'd never spent much time thinking about: the discrepancies between the Declaration and the Constitution; why slavery abounded in the South but not the North; how the Battle of Gettysburg was won; how Lincoln's assassination negatively affected the post-war reconciliation between the states. I lack the knowledge to be a critical reader of history and so cannot confidently identify where this book falls short. But I do recommend this graphic novel as an easy and enjoyable way to learn more than what an elementary education taught us.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly informative, nuanced, and comprehensive take on slavery, Lincoln, and the Civil War. I went into this book prepared to vet it as a potential middle school teaching volume, and put it down having been illuminated and engaged by the facts presented within. Hennessey's book on the Gettysburg Address represents a terrific potential for the graphic novel form to engage and teach readers. Highly recommended!

[L. McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Sigh) I’m interested in history and I like comics. I should like this book... but holy shit, it has problems.

What’s it about?
This is a comic that is meant to teach readers about the American Civil War and The Gettysburg Address.

Pros:
The book’s subject matter is interesting.
The art is fantastic. It’s all well drawn and uses a wide variety of art styles so yeah, I would say that the art is without a doubt the thing that this book has going for it.

Cons:
The storytelling style kind of... okay, I’ll be blunt, it’s awful. This is one of those comics that feels the need to explain every fucking thing which kind of ruins the point of the comic book medium in some ways. I know plenty of other comics do this, even a few good ones, but part of the point of comics is to let both the writing AND art tell the story, this is basically a normal history book with illustrations filling the page.
There’s some historical inaccuracy in this book. Admittedly I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to... well a lot of things, one of those things being history and some of the inaccuracies are pretty common but still... it only becomes a big problem when it gets to my next problem.
This book has an extreme political bias. It twists the events of the American Civil War and tries to say that the republicans and conservatives were the problem. Yeah, anyone who knows the real history knows that’s bullshit, it was mostly democrats pushing racism (not saying that all democrats are bad, I know plenty of great people who are democrats, just misled and probably don’t fully know what their party truly supports). It even tries to claim that Abraham Lincoln, the man who fought for black rights and freed the slaves despite the shit-ton of backlash, was racist. I’m not a hardcore republican or anything but this is just sad and pathetic. This book is a great example of why the left is a fuckin’ joke nowadays.

Overall:
This should have been really good and it is certainly not one of the worst comics I’ve read by any means but is still pretty bad. Yeah, the subject is interesting and I love the artwork but that can’t save this book from the historical inaccuracies, the terrible storytelling and the absurd political bias.
I have another book by this author on my bookshelf and I do still plan on reading it at some point but I REALLY hope that it’s better than this.

2/5

[Spectre · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first experience with a graphic book and most likely my last. The authors lectured me throughout the book cramming US history from prehistoric times to the present with a "bullet point" approach attempting to take a neutral "academic" position. Their use of Lincoln's speech was the highlight of the book but there are too many great books on the Civil War to waste time with this graphic presentation. (Note the map of Alabama on p. 125).

[Patrick Sherriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing, surprisingly intelligent analysis of the US Civil War, its causes and continuing impact on modern American life, and all through the prism of the 272 words that Lincoln spoke at the site of the battle that decided the outcome of the war. A few key points that I came away with from the text: philosophically there is a contradiction between the Declaration of Independence's stress on equality "All men are created equal" and the Constitution's rules for limited government; that is, you can't have it both ways: either there is an overriding imperative for equality, guaranteed by big government, or there is enforced inequality, ensured by limited, differing local governments. But for all the claims on political morality, the Civil War was at root fought over slavery. The South wanted the right to carry the institution into the west and the North didn't, not so much out of love for racial equality (few white folks went that far in the 1860s) but because slavers were undercutting free labour's wages in the burgeoning western frontier. Lots of lessons for the student of history, race and anyone trying to fathom Trump's appeal.

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[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, truly. Very carefully researched; thoughtful, balanced presentation of the larger picture - careful to not polish up either side; viscerally illustrated; concise yet thorough - distillation of essential facts. Easy to read, serious page turner, most fun I've ever had reading about such painful things.

[Adam Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short Review: The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation - great art, sophisticated history and political science, clear direction. A great example of non-fiction graphic novel that is appropriate both for high school students and adults.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-gettysburg-address/

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too often, the Civil War is both viewed (and taught) and as a very clear-cut, simple matter of the "good-guy northerners" fighting the "evil and rebellious southerners" over slavery. This book does a wonderful job of going far beyond that shallow dichotomy and instead looks at the many issues and influential events which culminated in the Civil War. This book is not an analysis of the Gettysburg Address, though some analysis is included. Instead, it systematically goes through the famous Address, using a phrase or a few sentences as the beginning of a "chapter" or section and elaborating from there (there are no formal or numbered chapters per se, but there are definitive sections, split by sections of the Address).

The beginning "four score and seven years ago" serves as the opening to the first "chapter" and looks at the founding of the United States. The reader is shown how in some ways, the seeds of unrest that led to the Civil War began at the founding of the country. The book addresses the political, social, philosophical, economical, and constitutional issues that influenced the many events resulting in the Civil War. While this book packs in a lot of information, it does so while maintaining a flowing narrative through its ongoing look at the Gettysburg Address. After setting the stage and clarifying the history, the book explains the Battle of Gettysburg itself. The book does not end with the death of Lincoln, but with the Civil Rights movements years later and stretching into today.

All in all, this was a very well-written book. It was well-researched and well-organized. It was nuanced without being too dense. It read more like a narrative and less like a textbook, but I feel like I learned more than I did with any textbook I read in school! I highly recommend this book.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite an amazing work. I picked it up thinking I would find an accessible history of the Gettysburg Address, or at most, the Civil War. Instead it's a sophisticated argument about politics in the early days of American history. It's excellent and invigorating to read. It's amazing in its brevity of words and appropriateness of the graphic novel form.

If I was teaching an early American history class, I would assign this right alongside the more "traditional" history texts. While many of Hennessey's points are stated as fact without the benefit of their well known counter-arguments, it's still both persuasive and instructive, as well as downright enjoyable. I could easily see a school assignment, from any level of school, being to unpack the arguments found in a single frame or page.

The only negative I can really find with the form and function of the graphic novel was the necessary dissolution of footnotes, works cited, or any indication of the theoretical influences of Hennessey's argument.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this, read this, read this.

[Linda 😊 Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot! The art is good and sometimes exhilarating- I’m a sucker for pictures that add to the accompanying text in a completely different way than just illustrating the words. There’s some terrific instances of that here, for just one example, p. 54 first panel “The Confederate Congress could not pay the staggering debt from the Revolutionary War, and the economy foundered” with an image of money flowing down a drain imperfectly plugged by the powers of the 1781 prototype federal government. The abstraction representing the Confederate Congress’s power was established on the previous page, while this image is also a subtle callback to a sequence on pp. 35-36 of children tossing coins into the Reflecting Pool in the National Mall. *chef’s-kiss!* All that power in a single panel! It’s too bad the graphics are crammed into pages too small to showcase them. This would have been a more physically pleasurable read in a larger format like 11”x16”.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Like their adaptation of the US Constitution, it explains the issues well, sets them in their historical context, shows the effects today, and does it all in a way that's accessible, entertaining, and memorable. A remarkable achievement.

[CJ Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a history major, I loved this book. I'm fairly certain this would be a satisfying read if you weren't a history major, though. The graphic presentation helps to break things down into digestible paragraphs rather than imposing blocks of text, and if you have a more visual learning style and found history boring and impenetrable, there's that too. The art is pretty good, the pages have a nice weight to them that says 'this is kind of important'. The book covers the American Revolution through LBJ, so the whole story can be told. That's one of the most important things in history--relating the stories. That's why most kids find history dull, is what I think. The chapters are begun with full page panels that, one by one, put forth the text of the speech; words engraved in stone suggest the carving of the speech at the Lincoln Memorial. The arguments are pleasantly comprehensive, and paint neither side as 'the bad guy'. There's supporting text from first-hand sources. Best of all, I have a richer and better understanding of the subject. I am tremendously satisfied and will probably get their US Constitution book next.

[Chalida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. It is much more than the speech, but how the origins of Lincoln's GA came about. The beginnings of slavery, why it flourished in the South, Lincoln's beliefs in the union as accordance the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, strong positions of big vs small government, union vs. state's rights, are we whole or are we separate? Arguments going on in the political landscape of today. I've never been more appreciating of Lincoln's thoughtful wondering. Someone said today his "soft power"-- a power and useful teaching tool. One for young people and adults alike!

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm totally clueless on American civil war history as I keep forgetting details. But reading this it feels a tad forced and ahistorical in the intro. The author uses fluffy language without referring to history or any text. Loosely explaining how the Union was losing the war and Robert E. Lee was decimating the Union overall and Lincoln was about to lose the re-election because of it. As I recall it's partly true, but mainly because of terrible leadership. Lincoln kept picking new generals who most refused to attack or were incompetent. One was even running against him as the frontrunner for president and someone who could make a deal to split the nation in 2. The anti-Lincoln vote.

Yet all of this is moot as the Union was by far the stronger side. The Confederacy had 2 options to win the war. Either make France or Britain support them to make the battle too complex for the Union. Or wait Lincoln out. Any attack plan was gullible and foolish which is why they lost Gettysburg and gave Lincoln the win. They started the war as Lincoln got elected and now of course were fighting on as if Lincoln lost they would get what they wanted in a potential Democrat president more friendly towards slavery or just trying to stop the war. They barely held on for these few years waiting for a miracle and winning their defensive battles via superior leadership. Once the North had a competent leader in Grant, and Lincoln was re-elected, there was zero chance whatsoever for anything. The war was lost right then and there. Even if the Union lost all battles they'd still win over time by just having more manpower and way more resources. The book overlooks this claiming the Confederacy was winning the war. That's impossible as they were way weaker at every point in time. Which is clear from the book itself! It's always curious when an author tries to make a point yet includes all the true history at the same time.

The author uses to many words to refer to events so that at times it becomes misleading. He talks about the American Constitution for many pages claiming that because it's not clear on secession that both the South and North were somewhat correct. Yet what would happen if it said you couldn't secede? Probably the same thing. The piece of paper would likely not stop a freaking civil war. Yet the author is obsessed with words and interpreting philosophical meanings. If any text is slightly unclear it can lead to war!

The book simplifies ideas and concepts too. Like having a textbox say "Andrew Johnson was a blatant racist." It's on the nose and crude history that doesn't encompass his personality and thinking and biases the story by making it overly emotional. Yet it's not exactly a wrong statement and does reveal the difference from Lincoln. When Lincoln got assassinated his vice president, the guy with an opposite worldview picked to gain Lincoln Democrat votes, now became president. Of course there is an issue in picking a vice president who goes against most of your ideas. If you are killed he's president - and this error is made far too often. Especially embarrassing error as Lincoln didn't like having bodyguards around and the chances of him being killed were very high at this point right as the South surrendered. The book supports Lincoln's reconstruction plan in taking away land from Southern Whites and giving it to newly freed slaves. As Johnson opposes it he's the evil racist. Yet the government taking land away from people is exactly the sort of issue the South would have a legitimate right to be angry about. The question is if that's the most democratic and fair way forward to achieve your goal. Johnson didn't need to be racist to see why this plan may have backfired horribly and lead to a new civil war or just long-term battles.

The book ends by talking about Black rights in USA post the civil war. I would have loved a stronger focus on the South overall. This focus on slavery and Black people often leads us away from the civil war history. Even many drawings contain modern things to symbolize various philosophical movements. With Martin Luther King for some reason playing a prominent role. I would have loved to see the current South leadership instead.

Between the too singular focus on progressive values and being anti-South, the book shines by including quite a bit of historical texts. The author is obsessed with what people said about things more so than actual events. There are many pages with no clear sources or any history. Other pages are clearly proper and factual history. Nothing is outright false, but many claims are quite misleading on their own if you don't know the true history looking at both sides of the issue. Overall it's a very strong history book. It's engaging with deep references and a fine enough overview. It absolutely cannot stand on its own! You have to read the other side somewhere as is often the case. Where to find a comic book presenting the other side, that's another matter. I strongly recommend Texas History Movies and maybe the New one too, but only the ending is about reconstruction and only in Texas. It's just very hard to find any literature from the other side as most big publishers are not keen on printing it. But I swear, I'm not some radical progressive just because I mainly read this side of history. I pick randomly and stumble upon this stuff. I try to stay critical, but it's impossible at times when everything I read is one-sided. But I'll keep trying.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book that traces the Civil War from the founding of the country to today. You know how people say that history repeats itself? After reading this book, I see how many of the political battles we see today have already happened, often multiple times. I came in thinking I knew a decent about the Civil War, and I left realizing that I knew next to nothing. Highly recommended to everyone.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an introduction to the Civil War, I think this book is excellent. This should not be the end point of learning about it, but maybe for a reluctant reader who just wants to build a little background knowledge I could not think of a better way to start.

One of the things that I really liked about it, was how it did not shy away from introducing some of the more complex issues.

[Vincent Migliore · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation is an amazing book about the civil war which clearly had a lot of research and commitment put into it. The art is phenomenal and it is very educating that should be taught in both high school and middle school due to the information being easy to digest, but very thorough. This is a good quick read and if you get the chance should definitely read it.

[Mike Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute treasure of a book. It takes the Gettysburg Address, line by line, and ties it to the Nation’s past, present, and future in a succinct and well-reasoned way. On top of that, the artwork is top-notch, and really advances the general themes and arguments of the book in a stellar way. Highly, highly recommended.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be a superb work to use for a review of all of US History for an advanced placement student getting ready for the examination.

[CaroKilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compelling and clear explanation of the politics of the time. The organisation of the "chapters" around the words of the Gettysburg Address is a brilliant idea.

[JacquinnPUP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top 5 Reason to read The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation

Ever wondered what captivating and impacting historical events would look like in a graphic Adaptation, well Jonathan Hennessy wrote it and Aaron McConnel drew it. You should definitely check this book out if you interested my civil war events and like graphic adaptations.

1: Amazing Graphics
The graphic Adaptation makes this book easy to understand and show you how much these characters were larger than life, Aaron McConnel illustrated the situation really beautifully.

2: Historical Events
This is a nonfiction book about history so includes the events, due to this it can help you have a better understanding about history overall, and show you how impactful the situation was at the time.

3: Amazing development
The development of the story throughout the book is fantastic and it has wonderful connections to times even now. Not only that it also shows how the character develops amazingly and has accurate descriptions of characters.

4: Impactful Questions
This book talks about amazing questions that can connect to every year and time, Are all humans made equal? Do people of color deserve the same rights of other people.

5: TImeline
This book also talks about the events after the Gettysburg address and before it, it has a amazing timeline, and always explain the timeline it is in so you wouldn't get lost.

The Gettysburg Address isn't just a book, It is a a graphic adaptation about impactful nonfiction historical events that have shaped who we are today as people, and a country.

[Ben Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation is a graphic novel written by Jonathan Hennessey and illustrated by Aaron McConnell. This graphic novel probes the implications of history through incisive analysis and compelling art.

The graphic novel examines possibly the most famous and influential speech in American history. It's not too long, being 271 words long and most Americans could regurgitate the speech verbatim, but few know the deeper meaning of the speech and the words used to craft it. This graphic novel delves into the speech and share the historical and political significance of the speech.

The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation is written and constructed extremely well. Hennessey's text pores over Lincoln's address and breaks down its 271 words into 17 sections, explaining the meaning of each passage from both historical and philosophical viewpoints, bolstered with exhaustive amounts of historical information. McConnell's artwork lends the text considerable evocative gravitas and relates the stark truth of the Civil War and the years leading up to it.

All in all, The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation is a wonderful graphic novel about one of the most memorable American Presidential speeches – the Gettysburg Address.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the best of Hennessey's graphic adaptations of the literature you studied in high school Civics class. Here, Hennessey dissects the lines of the Gettysburg Address, using each as a jumping-off point for a quick lesson about American history. From pre-Revolutionary War times to now, it's amazing to see how potent the Gettysburg Address was and still is in how it touched on what it means to be American. I definitely learned more about our country's founding, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction period than I ever did from other, more comprehensive materials. Highly recommended for anyone interested in a nuanced, revelatory dissection of American history.

[Faris Kaasim · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone interested in American history this graphic novel is a brilliant account of the country’s foundation, the schisms that led to the civil war and events thereafter. The book reveals this history through first person accounts, including soldiers, politicians and slaves.

Using each phrase and sentence from the Gettysburg address, the book illustrates discrepancies between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; why slavery took root in the South but not the North; the beginning of the Civil War and its end; the Battle of Gettysburg; Lincoln's evolution while in power and the effects of his assassination. A treat for all history lovers.

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this graphic non-fiction book because it’s often Challenged. So I wanted to find out why. I discovered a comprehensive history of events leading to the Civil War and slavery in America. One surprise is the efforts taken by the writers in explaining the positions of southern states. This does NOT mean the book takes a sympathetic view on the institution of slavery. It tries (successfully) to give clarity in the differing ideas of states right versus national unity.
But also - and most importantly- the book demonstrates that Lincoln was the right man to lead and save this country doing its dark time.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love History, Comics just aren't for me.
I had to read this book for history and that was rough. I normally don't have a problem getting through a book no matter how boring or difficult it is. But this. I can't do the pictures and the way information is spread out like that, or even the talking bubbles/ whatever they're called. I just wanted the book to end and to read something more concise with upfront information. Like I said, just not for me, but if you like this sort of stuff, I would definitely recommend it.

[Edy Gies · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best American history books I've ever read. It explained the divide between the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and why the divide is so divisive. We are still fighting about the differences over 150 years after the Civil War was concluded. I did find it very wordy and deep so my son who is 15 did not find it as helpful as I did. If you are interested in American History I would highly recommend this book.

[Shane Gower · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scholarship here is well supported and this graphic depiction flows well along with different parts of the Gettysburg Address to tell the larger story of the history of the United States through Reconstruction. This book frames well the notion of the Civil War as a “new birth of freedom”, and the importance of the speech in this context. It’s well written but also written and depicted in a way that would be engaging for students and adults alike.

[ReadingForFun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit choppy but highly informative. There are some reviews that claim there are inaccuracies or biases in the book. That’s not true.

The novel only shares facts — it’s just that some don’t like those facts or don’t understand the nuance behind them (abolitionists, even Lincoln, could be and did hold racists views, for example). I suggest those few find a traditional book with more space for that level of detail and nuance. This graphic novel is, however, accurate.