The Long Shadow Of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Peatman Michael Hartung Jared Peatman is a leadership development consultant and the director of curriculum for the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg. Lincoln / American History “Its words are magnificent in their brevity and their meaning. Yet, until the appearance of Jared Peatman’s book, no one had shown as clearly as he does the long-term effect of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on friend and foe alike. Must reading for all Americans.” —John F. Marszalek, executive director and managing editor, Ulysses S. Grant Association “After 150 years Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg still live with meaning. Any time Americans face crisis and sacrifice, that immortal few minutes’ talk reappears to comfort and inspire. Jared Peatman’s wonderfully researched and ably presented book is the first in more than a generation to examine thoroughly the events of November 19, 1863, the public response to the address, and what it has meant to the world ever since. The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address goes a long way toward explaining why we cannot escape its power, and why we wouldn’t escape it if we could. Like Lincoln, it belongs to the ages.” —William C. Davis, director, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech “Who owns the immortal words that Abraham Lincoln delivered at the soldiers’ cemetery overlooking Gettysburg? This question animates Jared Peatman’s immensely important The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. From the moment the president stepped away from the speaker’s platform on November 19, 1863, his ‘brief remarks’ unleashed fierce disagreements throughout the country. This contentious debate, as the author argues, quickly turned into a global conversation about issues of human freedom and the meaning of citizenship that continues to this day. Peatman’s powerful book reminds us that for every student who memorizes the Gettysburg Address, he or she will likely reach very different conclusions as to what Lincoln meant by a ‘new birth of freedom.’” —Peter S. Carmichael, Fluhrer Professor of History and director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College Southern Illinois University Press www.siupress.com Jacket illustration: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska. Sculpted by Daniel Chester French, 1909–12. Photograph, Wikipedia, by Ammodramus. Peatman jkt mech.indd 1 Southern Illinois University Press Printed in the United States of America The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address the 1960s. Peatman also explores foreign invocations of the Gettysburg Address and its influence on both the Chinese constitution of 1912 and the current French constitution. An epilogue highlights recent and even current applications of the Gettysburg Address and hints at ways the speech might be used in the future. By tracing the evolution of Lincoln’s brief words at a cemetery dedication into a revered document essential to American national idenÂ�tity, this revealing work provides fresh insight into the enduring influence of Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address on both American and international history and culture. The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Jared Peatman W hen Abraham Lincoln addressed the crowd at the new national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, he intended his speech to be his most eloquent statement on the inextricable link between equality and democracy. However, unwilling to commit to equality at that time, the nation stood ill-prepared to accept the full message of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In the ensuing century, groups wishing to advance a particular position borrowed Lincoln’s words for their own ends, highlighting the specific parts of the speech that echoed their stance while ignoring the rest. Only as the nation slowly moved toward equality did thos