His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation

Diana Schaub

Nov 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

About this audiobook

An expert analysis of Abraham Lincoln's three most powerful speeches reveals his rhetorical genius and his thoughts on our national character. Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, believed that our national character was defined by three key moments: the writing of the Constitution, our declaration of independence from England, and the beginning of slavery on the North American continent. His thoughts on these landmarks can be traced through three speeches: the Lyceum Address, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. The latter two are well-known, enshrined forever on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial. The former is much less familiar to most, written a quarter century before his presidency, when he was a twenty-eight-year-old Illinois state legislator. In His Greatest Speeches, professor Diana Schaub offers a brilliant line-by-line analysis of these timeless works, placing them in historical context and explaining the brilliance behind their rhetoric. The result is a complete vision of Lincoln's worldview that is sure to fascinate and inspire general audiences and history buffs alike. This book is a wholly original resource for considering the difficult questions of American purpose and identity, questions that are no less contentious or essential today than they were over two hundred years ago.

About the author

Diana Schaub is professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a visiting scholar at AEI. A recipient of the Richard M. Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters, she is the author of Erotic Liberalism, contributing editor of the New Atlantis, and part of the National Affairs publication committee.

Actress and director Cassandra Campbell has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks and has received multiple Audie Awards and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman.