The Ultimate Guide to the Gettysburg Address by David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften (review)

Abstract

Th ere is no shortage of scholarly material about the Gettysburg Address, arguably America’s most famous speech. Attorney David Hirsch and electrical engineer Dan Van Haft en have added another book to the growing list, an addendum to their larger work, Abraham Lincoln and the Structure of Reason (2010). In Th e Ultimate Guide to the Gettysburg Address, the authors examine the Gettysburg Address’s basic elements and “demonstrate how the scientifi c method is basic to the structure of the Gettysburg Address.” Th e book’s description boldly claims that it “explains the 272word speech more thoroughly than any book previously published” (Cover). Unfortunately, the Ultimate Guide’s meager size does not carry the weight its cover matter suggests. Th e book opens with lengthy block quotes from the November 20, 1863, edition of Th e New York Times and from historian Michael Burlingame. Th e remaining pages introduce readers to the “Six Elements of a Proposition,” the adaptation of Euclidean geometry to the process of speechwriting. Th e six elements are: enunciation, exposition, specifi cation, construction, proof, and conclusion. According to Hirsh and Van Haft en, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address possessed all six elements.