Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America was written by Garry Wills, who was an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University at the time that his book was published.

The book, which became a best-seller during the 1990s,[1] argued that Lincoln's 272-word address, which was delivered during the dedication of the new national cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, was so powerful that it reshaped the United States by altering Americans' view of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

[5][6][7] Wills compared Lincoln's speech to one delivered on the same day by Edward Everett,[8] focusing on the influences of the Greek revival in the United States and 19th century transcendentalist thought.

Wills also argued that Lincoln's speech drew on his interpretation of the U.S. Constitution,[9] adding that Lincoln considered the Declaration of Independence the first founding document, and looked to its emphasis on equality (changing Locke's phrase "Life, Liberty, and Property" to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness") in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

By repeating the antecedent as often as possible, instead of referring to it indirectly by pronouns like 'it' and 'they,' or by backward referential words like 'former' and 'latter,' Lincoln interlocks his sentences, making of them a constantly self-referential system.