A Few Appropriate Remarks: Lincoln at Gettysburg

Abraham Lincoln was widely known for his sense of humor, so when it came time for the National Cemetery at Gettysburg to be dedicated, organizers specifically asked Lincoln for "a few...appropriate...remarks." In fact, Lincoln was not even the featured speaker; Edward Everett, a former president of Harvard, orated for over two hours. Yet it was Lincoln's stirring ten-sentence Gettsyburg Address that has been remembered and repeated throughout the years, making it the most famous speech in American history. While this visually-pleasing video looks at both the speech and the battle that inspired it, the scripting is likely to confuse the youngest viewers that the producers hoped to reach (fourth grade and up). For instance, after offering a biography of Lincoln up to the time of the beginning of the Civil War, the storyline jumps backward to examine the issue of slavery at the nation's founding, carrying forward through the Missouri Compromise, Kansas-Nebraska Act and "Bloody Kansas" period, before jumping to 1862 and Lee's march north to Antietam, followed by a review of the Battle of Gettysburg. Elementary and junior high schools should pass (although elementary schools should consider Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln [VL-3/00]), but this is recommended for high school and college classes that can follow the chronology, and enthusiastically recommended for public libraries with robust history collections. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Reagan)