Wills, Garry 1934-

Overview

Works:	254 works in 1,141 publications in 10 languages and 76,092 library holdings
Genres:	Biography History Church history Criticism, interpretation, etc Biographies Controversial literature Apologetic writings Case studies Lectures Nonfiction television programs
Roles:	Author, Editor, Translator, Author of introduction, Narrator, Other, pre, Speaker, Interviewer

Publication Timeline

Most widely held works about Garry Wills

Why I am a Catholic by Garry Wills( Book )
Confessions of a conservative by Garry Wills( Book )
Outside looking in : adventures of an observer by Garry Wills( Book )
Nation and world, Church and God : the legacy of Garry Wills( Book )
Outside looking in : adventures of an observer by Garry Wills( )

Catholic lay intellectuals in the American Conservative Movement, 1950-1980 by Patrick Allitt( )
Outside looking in : people observed by Garry Wills( Book )
Benjamin Franklin, printer : being an exhibit containing almanacs, books, engraved portraits, journals, lottery tickets, manuscripts, medals, newspapers, paper currency, &c( Book )
[Garry Wills talks about James Madison] by Garry Wills( Recording )
Wills, Garry( )
Ken McCormick collection of the records of Doubleday and Company, Inc( )
J.M. Lalley papers by Joseph M Lalley( )
American lay Catholic intellectual acculturation : a case study by Jacqueline M Cormier( )
[Garry Wills discusses "Papal Sin" with Terry Gross] by Garry Wills( Recording )
Critiquing liberalism : the political thought of Garry Wills by Erik Estep( )
Harper's magazine records( )
Ken McCormick collection of Doubleday and Company, inc., records( )
[Author Garry Wills discusses his new book, "John Wayne's America"] by Garry Wills( Recording )
Future of the United States( Visual )

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Most widely held works by Garry Wills

Lincoln at Gettysburg : the words that remade America by Garry Wills( Book )

41 editions published between 1961 and 2014 in 4 languages and held by 3,914 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Examination of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame breathing new life into the words and revealing much about the President

Inventing America : Jefferson's Declaration of independence by Garry Wills( Book )

48 editions published between 1978 and 2018 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,933 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Analyzes the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and discusses the political, social, and intellectual philosophies on which it was based

Reagan's America : innocents at home by Garry Wills( Book )

38 editions published between 1985 and 2017 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,805 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

A biography analyzing the values surrounding Reagan as he grew up, was educated, entered into the movie and business worlds, and finally into politics

The Kennedy imprisonment : a meditation on power by Garry Wills( Book )

33 editions published between 1981 and 2017 in English and Japanese and held by 2,362 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Garry Wills, both historian and journalist, exercises both crafts in turn. Sometimes gossipy, sometimes philosophical, he traces the lines of power in the Kennedys' lives

Augustine's Confessions : a biography by Garry Wills( )

18 editions published between 2011 and 2013 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,330 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

" ... Tells the story of the Confessions--what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one-and-a-half millennia since it was composed. Following Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unparalleled introduction to one of the most important books in the Christian and Western traditions. Understandably fascinated by the story of Augustine's life, modern readers have largely succumbed to the temptation to read the Confessions as autobiography. But, Wills argues, this is a mistake. The book is not autobiography but rather a long prayer, suffused with the language of Scripture and addressed to God, not man. Augustine tells the story of his life not for its own significance but in order to discern how, as a drama of sin and salvation leading to God, it fits into sacred history. "We have to read Augustine as we do Dante," Wills writes, "alert to rich layer upon layer of Scriptural and theological symbolism." Wills also addresses the long afterlife of the book, from controversy in its own time and relative neglect during the Middle Ages to a renewed prominence beginning in the fourteenth century and persisting to today, when the Confessions has become an object of interest not just for Christians but also historians, philosophers, psychiatrists, and literary critics"--Jacket

What Jesus meant by Garry Wills( Book )

16 editions published between 2005 and 2014 in 3 languages and held by 2,257 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In what are billed as "culture wars," people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program--He was far more radical than that. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the working class, and he spoke to and for that class. This book will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politics--"Christian socialists" as well as biblical theocrats. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity--Jesus without the Resurrection is simply not the Jesus of the gospels. He argues that this does not make people embrace an otherworldliness that ignores the poor or the problems of our time.--From publisher description

Papal sin : structures of deceit by Garry Wills( Book )

22 editions published between 2000 and 2002 in English and Dutch and held by 2,189 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Chronicles the history of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the Church's devious practices and stubborn resistance to the truth

Saint Augustine by Garry Wills( Book )

28 editions published between 1999 and 2005 in 7 languages and held by 2,166 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

For centuries, Augustine's writings have moved and fascinated readers. With the fresh, keen eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis has won him a Pulitzer Prize, Gary Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his influential interpretation of the Christian doctrines of mind and body, wisdom and God. Saint Augustine explores both the great ruminator on the human condition and the everyday man who set pen to parchment. It challenges many misconceptions, among them those regarding his early sexual excesses. Here, for students, Christians, and voyagers into the new millennium, is a lively and incisive portrait of one who helped to shape our thoughts

James Madison by Garry Wills( Book )

7 editions published in 2002 in English and held by 2,152 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In this examination of the life of a founding father, renowned historian Wills takes a fresh look at the life of James Madison, from his rise to prominence in the colonies through his role in the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the first Constitutional Congress

Under God : religion and American politics by Garry Wills( Book )

16 editions published between 1990 and 2014 in English and held by 2,148 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Explores the relation of religion and politics in American life

A necessary evil : a history of American distrust of government by Garry Wills( Book )

15 editions published between 1999 and 2014 in English and held by 2,139 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The author blames American's long-standing mistrust of government on a misreading of history, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers

Nixon agonistes; the crisis of the self-made man by Garry Wills( Book )

35 editions published between 1969 and 2017 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,099 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

From one of America's most distinguished historians comes this classic analysis of Richard Nixon. By considering some of the president's opinions, Wills comes to the controversial conclusion that Nixon was actually a liberal. Both entertaining and essential, Nixon Agonistes captures a troubled leader and a struggling nation mired in a foolish Asian war, forfeiting the loyalty of its youth, puzzled by its own power, and looking to its cautious president for confidence. In the end, Nixon Agonistes reaches far beyond its assessment of the thirty-seventh president to become an incisive and provocative analysis of the American political machine

Certain trumpets : the call of leaders by Garry Wills( Book )

8 editions published between 1994 and 1995 in English and held by 1,790 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"In his Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills reframed our understanding of Lincoln the leader. Wills breathed new life into words we thought we knew and revealed much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. He showed how Lincoln's personality was less at issue than his followers' values and Lincoln's exquisite ability, in a mere 272 words, to reach them, to give the whole nation "a new birth of freedom," and to weave a spell that has not yet been broken." "Now Wills extends his extraordinary quality of observation and iconoclastic scholarship to examine the nature of leadership itself, perhaps history's most pivotal and emotionally charged topic. Almost the first thing people say about leaders is that we used to have them but now do not. Some blame this on the press, or on television, or on education. Others say we are manipulated, not led. Still others pore over book after book, searching for the perfect exemplar to imitate in order to achieve success." "Wills offers a wide range of portraits drawn largely, but not exclusively, from American history and representing revolutionary, political, religious, business, artistic, sports, and military leaders - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Napoleon, King David, Ross Perot, George Washington, Socrates, Mary Baker Eddy, Carl Stotz, Martha Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesare Borgia, and Dorothy Day - each shown in the act of leading his or her followers. And after each example, Wills also provides an anti-type to help define the type better."

Negro president : Jefferson and the slave power by Garry Wills( Book )

11 editions published between 2003 and 2005 in English and held by 1,731 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Offers a new look at Thomas Jefferson and his presidency, his election due to the "slave power" vote, the relationship between the power of the slave states and his administration's policies, and the opposition he faced

What Paul meant by Garry Wills( Book )

14 editions published between 2006 and 2014 in English and held by 1,711 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

All through history, Christians have debated Paul's influence on the church. Though revered, Paul has also been a stone on which many stumble. Unlike the Gospel writers, who carefully shaped their narratives many decades after Jesus' life, Paul wrote in the heat of the moment, managing controversy, and sometimes contradicting himself, but at the same time offering the best reflection of those early times. This interpretation of Paul's writing examines his tremendous influence on the first explosion of Christian belief and chronicles the controversy surrounding Paul through the centuries.--From publisher description

Explaining America : the Federalist by Garry Wills( Book )

26 editions published between 1980 and 2001 in English and Undetermined and held by 1,660 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In 1787 and 1788, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison published what remains perhaps the greatest example of political journalism in the English language--the Federalist Papers. Written to urge ratification of the Constitution, the eighty-five essays--trenchant in thought and graceful in expression--defended the Constitution not merely as a theoretical statement but as a practical instrument of rule. Now updated with a new introduction, Garry Wills's classic study subjects these essays to rigorous analysis, illuminating, as only he can, their significance in the development of the philosophy on which our government is based

Rome and rhetoric : Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by Garry Wills( )

13 editions published between 2011 and 2013 in English and held by 1,643 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Renaissance plays and poetry in England were saturated with the formal rhetorical twists that Latin education made familiar to audiences and readers. Yet a formally educated man like Ben Jonson was unable to make these ornaments come to life in his two classical Roman plays. The author, focusing his attention on Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, here demonstrates how Shakespeare so wonderfully made these ancient devices vivid, giving his characters their own personal styles of Roman speech. In four chapters, each devoted to one of the play's main characters, the author shows that Caesar, Brutus, Antony, and Cassius each has his own take on the rhetorical ornaments that Elizabethans learned in school. Shakespeare also makes Rome present and animate by casting his troupe of experienced players to make their strengths shine through the historical facts that Plutarch supplied him with. The result is that the Rome English-speaking people carry about in their minds is the Rome that Shakespeare created for them. And that is true, the author affirms, even for today's classical scholars with access to the original Roman sources

Head and heart : American Christianities by Garry Wills( Book )

11 editions published between 2007 and 2008 in English and held by 1,607 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

An examination of Christianity's place in American life through history, from the Puritans to the administration of George W. Bush. The struggle within American Christianity, historian Wills argues, has been between the head and the heart: reason and emotion, Enlightenment and Evangelism. 18th century America saw a religious revolution--an Enlightenment culture emerged whose hallmarks were tolerance for other faiths and a belief that religion was best divorced from political institutions. Wills shows the steps by which church-state separation was enshrined in the Constitution. He shows a repeating pattern in our history: a cooling of popular religious fervor, followed by an explosion in evangelical activity, and then a backlash. --From publisher description

What the Gospels meant by Garry Wills( Book )

8 editions published between 2007 and 2014 in English and Korean and held by 1,523 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Presents a biblical analysis of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, evaluating each for their evangelistic style and goals while revealing key differences in how each writer portrayed Jesus

John Wayne's America : the politics of celebrity by Garry Wills( Book )

16 editions published between 1997 and 2014 in English and Undetermined and held by 1,516 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Unlike other actors and actresses with whom we associate political views, Wayne embodied a politics of large meanings - a politics of gender (masculine), ideology (patriotism), character (self-reliance), and personal responsibility. It was a politics of implicit dogmas that often transcended his own views and behavior. Although Wayne avoided serving in the military during World War II, he became, through his screen roles, the model of the American soldier. Likewise, although Wayne's popular image is that of a staunch anti-Communist, in reality he avoided taking a stand in the bitter ideological war that raged in Hollywood until after the issue had been decided

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