The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation
Hennessey deconstructs the phrases composing President Lincoln’s brief memorial speech and uses each one to explore the many complicated cultural and political components of the American Civil War.  McConnell’s detailed and highly textured art expands and supports the text by showing the variety of class-based, racial, and historical perspectives creating the mismatched lenses through which Americans view their own history, along with helpful maps and comparative presentations of changed landscapes. Without being didactic or overwhelming, this stellar nonfiction graphic novel shows the challenges of nation building and maintenance in a place and time where technology, economics, and social theory are all undergoing rapid growth and facing considerable resistance. Instead of deifying Lincoln as either an author or an orator, the creators of this work present a thoroughgoing study of the complexity of his brief battlefield speech. A star follow-up to the team’s The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation (2008). --Francisca Goldsmith