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The Greatest Speech, Ever: The Remarkable Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Gettysburg Address
This book was written to be more than a specialized monograph about the Gettysburg Address. The author digressed along the way into side excursions and back roads of Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable life – exploring his hardscrabble childhood, and his courageous but controversial Emancipation Proclamation. After all, to fully understand how the Gettysburg Address came to be, one must understand how Abraham Lincoln came to be. Part of the greatness of the Gettysburg Address is that the DNA of Lincoln’s life is found in every word.
Senator Baker in his Foreword wrote “Judge Cotton’s book is not only a fascinating and scholarly assessment of the Gettysburg Address and its impact on America, but also an absorbing look into Abraham Lincoln’s life.”
Senator Baker in his Foreword wrote “Judge Cotton’s book is not only a fascinating and scholarly assessment of the Gettysburg Address and its impact on America, but also an absorbing look into Abraham Lincoln’s life.”
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 6, 2014
Very well researched, this book offers more than just the Gettysburg Address. There is a great deal of information about Abraham Lincoln's formative years, his thought processes in crafting both the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation, the personality traits that made Lincoln so well-suited to the task of leading the nation through its bleakest hours, and the constraints placed upon him by the political necessities of the times, such as the need to maintain the support of the border states.
The chapters dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg are difficult and painful to read, but offer great insights into the heroism of both the soldiers who fought, but also the residents of the town, who were left with the task of dealing with thousands of bodies and the remnants of battle, including live shells that remained in the fields.
The days leading up to the consecration of the cemetery at Gettysburg are depicted in great detail, and Cotton shows us the depth of the affection for Abraham Lincoln the man, even in the midst of a firestorm of criticism of Lincoln, the President.
All in all, I would highly recommend this book to any student of American history, and would call it a must-read for Civil War buffs.
My only criticism is the lack of editing that seemed pervasive in the middle third of the book. It is a shame that such a scholarly work would be published with so many grammatical errors and wrong word choices.
The chapters dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg are difficult and painful to read, but offer great insights into the heroism of both the soldiers who fought, but also the residents of the town, who were left with the task of dealing with thousands of bodies and the remnants of battle, including live shells that remained in the fields.
The days leading up to the consecration of the cemetery at Gettysburg are depicted in great detail, and Cotton shows us the depth of the affection for Abraham Lincoln the man, even in the midst of a firestorm of criticism of Lincoln, the President.
All in all, I would highly recommend this book to any student of American history, and would call it a must-read for Civil War buffs.
My only criticism is the lack of editing that seemed pervasive in the middle third of the book. It is a shame that such a scholarly work would be published with so many grammatical errors and wrong word choices.
September 7, 2020
My hometown judge wrote this book about the process of Lincoln writing one of the shortest, but most powerful speeches in US History. Well worth the read!
March 31, 2019
One of my favorites
I love history, I believe that we must know our history, and this book fills that necessity superbly. Thank you for bringing President Abraham Lincoln to life and reminding me about “The Greatest Speech, Ever”!
I love history, I believe that we must know our history, and this book fills that necessity superbly. Thank you for bringing President Abraham Lincoln to life and reminding me about “The Greatest Speech, Ever”!
October 7, 2018
Fabulous details. Gripping. A non boring history book that will make you love Lincoln.
February 28, 2014
This is a very in depth look at the speech that President Lincoln gave in Gettysburg for the dedication of the memorial. The author said that he had not heard it or looked at it in a while until Sep 11, 2012 during the memorial for all of the people that were lost at the Twin Towers. This is a very in depth look at not only the speech and how it came about, but also about Lincoln. That he had his own body guard by the name of Ward Hill Lamon. He was paid $2.00 a week and he was a friend of Lincolns back when the President was a lawyer, he also campaign for him. Hill stood 6ft 2 inches, carried a gun, brass knuckles and was incorruptibly loyal and willing to step in front of a bullet or a blade to safe the President. Lincoln did not want to be seen as a King or someone who needed consent protection, but from the time he was elected into office he was receiving letters daily of threats of his life. Hill was really the only who saw though letters. Lincoln also made him and U.S.Marshall as well. As for the speech it really started back in 1858. He gave a speech in Chicago about immigrants and how they were promised the same assurances in the Declaration of Independence as someone who was born here in America. “That if not we are living a contradiction of the expressed promise of the Declaration of Independence “”All men are created equal”. Whether Thomas Jefferson consciously intended his words to extend that beyond white males, slaves, immigrant and people of color you do not know. It is not written. Lincoln’s argument spoken as a lawyer which he was at the time of this speech, was the word expressed promise that “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.” It was like no one got it. On July 7 1863, celebrating the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Lincoln speech was the beginnings of the Gettysburg address. “How long ago is it – 80 years since on the 4 of July for the first time in history of the world a nation by its representatives, assembled and declared a self-evident truth that all men are created equal”. He went on to say that the Confederate war against the Union was to overthrow that very principle. He went on to say, “Some people talk of freedom for the slaves a few speak of equality you cannot have either until you have both”. For this speech which I had never seen before was more powerful than the Gettysburg Address. The author also wrote about how Lincoln could have delayed the election of 1864, he did not because he said by “doing so would be like the South winning for we would be doing away with are principles”. He could not stand for that. That was something also no one had ever talked about. He then dispelled the rumors of the speech being written on an envelope or anything else. He only went by what is in museums and has been authenticated. The day of the speech was strange for a number of reasons. This has been in all of the books I have read about Lincoln, (my wife says too many). Lincoln in his Youngers years was a surveyor, so he meet with the man William Sanders, who was the landscape architect of the Soldier’s National Cemetery. He then toured the grounds with Seward, who was Sec of State. It would be nice to know if anything was said then. Then back to the podium, band played a short introduction and then the first speaker. Edward Everett he spoke for two hours. Boring, but they said he was entertaining, I don’t know how but all the books agree on the time. The President of The U.S. Lincoln gets up the crowd is stirring standing for two hours people begin to talk it is hot the President starts talking and he is done, his speech is less than 3 min and the ones that heard it say it was great but most people don’t even hear it. Mr. French said “it was the best speech he ever heard and wished he would have written it”. Really the speech was printed in some papers that for emancipation but the speech was torn apart by northern and southern papers. It would really be 50 years later that his speech was looked at again for what it really was and herald as one of the greatest speeches ever. But WW1 was beginning. Now the book at the time of the war South Carolina who actually fired the first shot, had more than half of their population were slaves. 1 out 7 persons in America was a slave & the south had when he became President over 4 million people languishing in human bondage in the south. Lincoln goal was freedom for all men, he believed ALL MEN WERE CREATED EQUEAL. No ands or buts about it the sad thing is he also killed for that belief. This is a good book with more information than what I gave in my review. You can tell I liked it. I got this book from net galley.
April 2, 2015
The book is informative, and well written. It flows smoothly from the page and works softly with the eyes to make up a relaxing journey through the life of our sixteenth President. The Author cleverly manages to convert vaporous thought into more tangible, and lasting written word. This is a Must-Read for every historian from novice, to professor. James L. Cotton has solidified his place among the most trusted, and educated scholars of today on the subject of Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Dedication. This work has highlighted the importance of of a single 272 word speech which gave hope to a starving country, and breathed new life back into a document which we must hold sacred as the most important philosophy of the American Experiment.
I first met the good Judge sometime in the early nineties. It was through the haze of a three day drunk, on a two day weekend. I was drug from an early morning cell and propped up in front of the bench to face the consequences of my heinous actions. The Judge leaped from his chair, over his bench and came striking down on me like Zeus throwing a lighting-bolt...well,,maybe more like a fine and community service,,,but pretty close..
I'm not an educated man,,not even really a smart man, and usually I find reading material of this nature harder to chew than a two dollar steak. Not having means and being of what many considered Born-Low formal education escapes me. But just like the frontier Lincoln portrayed in the story, I had a thirst for knowledge. When I staggered into this book I did so the same way a first year college student would a School of Pedigree, with a fierce hang-over and smelling like the roach I'd just blazed down on in the parking lot. I immediately found myself in a room of intellectuals, and scholars, with Author Cotton lecturing as to the importance of this single speech. I found a seat way in the back, but close enough to hear the Author Narrate history through the power of print.
I was immediately transported there beside the Author on the 9/11 anniversary. Not physically, but through the power of the written word. It was here I seen the Author weep inside. It was here I seen the spark in the eye of James Cotton, the beginning page of "The Greatest Speech, Ever."
From there we boarded "Steam Engine One" with its leather couches, and Venecian blind windows. The Author told the story of Lincoln in a manner I had never heard, in a language that was easy to understand. I was there in spirit when Lincoln started his draft of the Gettysburg Address, I may have even been the one to have handed him the envelope I had just collected from the plank wood floor of the train. While reading I could feel the reverence the author holds for "Father Abraham" as so many liked to call him, though I can't say for sure if I walked away with that same regard for the President. Through these pages I managed to find a President I did not like. I saw a president, who while serving in a lesser office, accepted the challenge of a duel, only to compromise at the last moment, but would later send drafted young boys to a war in which no compromise could be found. I saw a president who let his bi-polar, un-ruly wife run the white house through the influence of "caniption-fits". It was this blatant honesty the author sewed into the fabric of this book that I truly admired. Author Cotton makes you ask yourself "were Lincoln president today, would he be looked at with the same respect?"
The Author brought my understanding about Lincoln to a whole new level with his limitless knowledge, and mastery of the pen. I found a new respect for Thomas Lincoln as Ab's father, and saw a reasoning for the President's disdain for the Ametican-Indian after learning the fate which befell his grandfather who he was named after.
From the first page to the last this book held my attention better than any college professor I could ever hope to have. I now consider myself a student of the Author on the subject of not only president Lincoln, but the subject of life.
James Cotton has managed to intrigue, inform, and entertain. This truly is a great book, about a great speech..
I first met the good Judge sometime in the early nineties. It was through the haze of a three day drunk, on a two day weekend. I was drug from an early morning cell and propped up in front of the bench to face the consequences of my heinous actions. The Judge leaped from his chair, over his bench and came striking down on me like Zeus throwing a lighting-bolt...well,,maybe more like a fine and community service,,,but pretty close..
I'm not an educated man,,not even really a smart man, and usually I find reading material of this nature harder to chew than a two dollar steak. Not having means and being of what many considered Born-Low formal education escapes me. But just like the frontier Lincoln portrayed in the story, I had a thirst for knowledge. When I staggered into this book I did so the same way a first year college student would a School of Pedigree, with a fierce hang-over and smelling like the roach I'd just blazed down on in the parking lot. I immediately found myself in a room of intellectuals, and scholars, with Author Cotton lecturing as to the importance of this single speech. I found a seat way in the back, but close enough to hear the Author Narrate history through the power of print.
I was immediately transported there beside the Author on the 9/11 anniversary. Not physically, but through the power of the written word. It was here I seen the Author weep inside. It was here I seen the spark in the eye of James Cotton, the beginning page of "The Greatest Speech, Ever."
From there we boarded "Steam Engine One" with its leather couches, and Venecian blind windows. The Author told the story of Lincoln in a manner I had never heard, in a language that was easy to understand. I was there in spirit when Lincoln started his draft of the Gettysburg Address, I may have even been the one to have handed him the envelope I had just collected from the plank wood floor of the train. While reading I could feel the reverence the author holds for "Father Abraham" as so many liked to call him, though I can't say for sure if I walked away with that same regard for the President. Through these pages I managed to find a President I did not like. I saw a president, who while serving in a lesser office, accepted the challenge of a duel, only to compromise at the last moment, but would later send drafted young boys to a war in which no compromise could be found. I saw a president who let his bi-polar, un-ruly wife run the white house through the influence of "caniption-fits". It was this blatant honesty the author sewed into the fabric of this book that I truly admired. Author Cotton makes you ask yourself "were Lincoln president today, would he be looked at with the same respect?"
The Author brought my understanding about Lincoln to a whole new level with his limitless knowledge, and mastery of the pen. I found a new respect for Thomas Lincoln as Ab's father, and saw a reasoning for the President's disdain for the Ametican-Indian after learning the fate which befell his grandfather who he was named after.
From the first page to the last this book held my attention better than any college professor I could ever hope to have. I now consider myself a student of the Author on the subject of not only president Lincoln, but the subject of life.
James Cotton has managed to intrigue, inform, and entertain. This truly is a great book, about a great speech..
September 8, 2016
Read for the Gettysburg Address, stay for the in depth look at the early life of Abraham Lincoln and the balanced response to critiques about the Emancipation Proclamation.
The story of the Gettysburg Address is compelling, and the book has a lot of details that are not as well known as the speech itself. The mood and atmosphere of Gettysburg, the story of the speech writing, and the other speeches given that day were all new facts for me and interesting. The build up to the speech itself was almost "edge of your seat" even though you know whats going to happen and probably have the speech memorized yourself.
The early life of Lincoln has been touched on in other books but the author does a fantastic job of bringing out just what is the most important; with a special emphasis on the relationship between Lincoln and his father.
If you are interested in Lincoln at all, I highly recommend the read.
The story of the Gettysburg Address is compelling, and the book has a lot of details that are not as well known as the speech itself. The mood and atmosphere of Gettysburg, the story of the speech writing, and the other speeches given that day were all new facts for me and interesting. The build up to the speech itself was almost "edge of your seat" even though you know whats going to happen and probably have the speech memorized yourself.
The early life of Lincoln has been touched on in other books but the author does a fantastic job of bringing out just what is the most important; with a special emphasis on the relationship between Lincoln and his father.
If you are interested in Lincoln at all, I highly recommend the read.
October 6, 2016
A Lincoln must read
If you are interested in learning about the roots of the American Way, this book is for you. The author is passionate about his subject and that passion is contagious. My congratulations to the author for this inspirational book.
If you are interested in learning about the roots of the American Way, this book is for you. The author is passionate about his subject and that passion is contagious. My congratulations to the author for this inspirational book.
April 3, 2017
Very interesting book about Lincoln and how he wrote and delivered the Gettysburg address. A little long near the end but still a great book to read both from a historical and leadership perspective.
"My peculiar ambition is to be truly esteemed by my fellow man by rendering myself worthy of their esteem." Lincoln
Lincoln never spoke "beyond the people."
History has taught us that many of the greatest human accomplishments are realized not by brilliance or strength but by raw perseverance.
Lincoln understood that words are like shiny gemstones; polish and buff them too much, and you're left with dull kernels of rock. He knew there was power in plain, unpretentious, unpolished words - words that threaded the needle of the listener. Words that came from the language they were raised on. It was Lincoln's secret to the power of communication.
"My peculiar ambition is to be truly esteemed by my fellow man by rendering myself worthy of their esteem." Lincoln
Lincoln never spoke "beyond the people."
History has taught us that many of the greatest human accomplishments are realized not by brilliance or strength but by raw perseverance.
Lincoln understood that words are like shiny gemstones; polish and buff them too much, and you're left with dull kernels of rock. He knew there was power in plain, unpretentious, unpolished words - words that threaded the needle of the listener. Words that came from the language they were raised on. It was Lincoln's secret to the power of communication.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews