Required Reading for EVERY AMERICAN!
I am "Another" CIVIL WAR BUFF, and have bathed myself in many tellings and retellings of the Great Battles of the Civil War, and the brave generals and soldiers who fought in these battles. (Some Authors of Note: Shelby Foote, Bruce Catton, Douglas Southall Freeman, Glenn Tucker, Stephen W. Sears, James Robertson, Herman Hattaway, Stephen B. Oates, William C. Davis, John Michael Priest, Gordon C. Rhea, Jack Hurst, Jean Edward Smith, James I. Robertson Jr., David Herbert Donald, Edward G. Longacre, G. F. R. Henderson, Eric J. Wittenberg and H. B. Mcclellan amongst others). And now, we have these three deeply rich and moving volumes by Jeff Shaara, and his son, Michael, told as "history as a novel" rather than as "historical novels"...there is quite a difference here!
An amazingly well written historical account of the Civil War using a fictionalized approach. These three books will keep you rivetted all the way through them. Of further note is the astonishingly seamless transition between the father and son authors. Between them they present a well balanced view of "behind the scenes" look at both armies of the north and the south.
"Gods and Generals" - as told from the perspectives of the generals involved in these campaigns. I was most particularly moved by Lee and his torn loyalties to the US Army and his home state of Virginia, and most especially by the great Stonewall Jackson.
"The Killer Angels" - The author brings the Battle of Gettysburg to life in this powerful volume. He uses alternating views from the officers of both sides of the conflict, thus making you feel as you are right with them, culminating in the horrific and tragic end of the battle. This telling will surely leave you in no doubt as to why Gettysburg's Fields, Little Round Top, and the surrounding areas truly are the most hollowed ground of this great nation. If you have a heart, you will surely weep at the terrible loss of American Lives here in these rolling fields.
"The Last Full Measure" - If you have no prior knowledge of how horrific this war was, this book will surely drive that point home. And, particularly more so, since the brutalities committed on both sides were against our own. This concluding volume gives the sorrow of the losses suffered by all, and the sadness of General Lee's surrender, and Joshua Chamberlain's gracious and deeply moving salute to the surrendering army and the dignity of that surrender. There will be moments when you will surely want to stop and cry for the loss of life. Certainly, when the ONE man who was capable of healing the country and bringing us all back together as one nation, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated, leaving the country in shambles with no clear candidate to heal us as a nation and bring us back together.
This three volume set, in addition to Jeff Shaara's "Gone For Soldiers", which makes an Excellent introduction to most of the characters that follow in the three major books, should be required reading in ALL our school systems. It's for certain that these books will stand near the heart of Civil War History for a very long time. Most Highly Recommended.
~operabruinRead full review
