The Speech
Jill Lepore writes about the history of American Presidents’ Inaugural Addresses, from George Washington to Barack Obama.
"Those of the past except Lincoln's, are dreary reading," James Garfield confided to his diary after reading every Inaugural Address. "I have half a mind to make none." The platitude quotient tends to be high, the rhetoric stately and self-serving. Lincoln's are surpassingly fine; most of the rest are utterly unlovely.