It remains without question the most memorable and memorized speech in American history. In 272 words, spoken on November 19, 1863, among the freshly dug graves of the Union dead at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln evoked and distilled the profound significance of the terrible war in which the nation was engaged. This volume aims to place Lincoln's words in their full context. Edited by the country's leading scholars, including Sean Wilentz, Craig L. Symonds, and Harold Holzer, it approaches the Address from a number of fresh perspectives. Taken together, they show why in the century and a half since it was delivered, the Gettysburg Address has proven a seemingly inexhaustible source of somber reflection and soaring hope, its language echoed by those seeking meaning for their own struggles and sacrifices.