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Summary: A heart-rending study in leadership
Review: Although a Civil War buff since junior high school, I did not discover this marvel until attending the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, where it was required reading. I was not the only student who read it in one sitting. It also caused some of the most lively discussions, debates, and arguments our class engaged in throughout the course. The most compelling thing about the book was Mr. Sharra's ability to draw one completely into the characters' thoughts and emotions. It was also a concise and riveting look at commanders' relationships with other commanders and the soldiers they would send and/or lead into battle. If you are only interested in gory battle scenes, this book is not for you. Although the battle descriptions will make you feel as if you are a participant (one can almost feel the ground trembling under the largest artillery barrage ever conducted in North America), the real story is about the individuals. It is, easily, the best historical novel I have ever read. If it doesn't make you want to run out and become a Civil War reenactor, or at least read Jeff Shaara's prequel, then you need to borrow Commander Data's emotion chip. Now, where's that hoop skirt pattern?
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Summary: A Great Book
Review: This is a book which is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' reading list for junior officers, and as an active duty Marine with 18 years of experience, I can say it is one of the best all around leadership stories that I've read. The characterization is wonderful, the plot is coherent and concise, the writing is particularly fine. Michael Shaara has depicted the Civil War in its full detail, down to the hunger and pain of Lee's men in their bare feet and to the impact that the loss of Jackson will have on the battle. Stuart's truancy is accounted for, and not only is the heroism of the great names depicted, but also that of the ordinary soldier. Warfare has changed significantly. We no longer do frontal assaults on defended positions, and for good reason. But the bravery required of military members everywhere is a common and constant thread throughout this book. If you only read one fiction book in your life about the military, this should be it. Beautifully written, it is the basis for the movie "Gettysburg," and the only complaint I have of this book is that it ends too soon.Read the sequel and prequel, too!
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Summary: Not my usual fare, a great change
Review: I would not have ever selected this book had it not been the choice of the book group I'm in. Lucky me, for it was an incredible book. Never having been much interested in Civil War history (my husband is though), I gained a hugh amount of knowledge of this time period. It proved to be a very interesting discussion book too. The maps are invaluable to guide the reader along the way. The story is very enjoyable. Don't miss out on a great book here.
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Summary: Killer Angels review
Review: I really like the way Michael Shaara presents the battle of Gettysburg in The Killer Angels. His interpretation of primary sources - i.e. soldiers' diaries - is unique and outstanding, and it forms a very good story line. The novel is divided into chapters based on point of view. For the South, the book is told from the perspective of Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Armistead, Col. Fremantle, and Longstreet's spy Harrison. For the Union, Col. Chamberlain and Gen. Buford are featured.
Another characteristic that makes this novel so fascinating is how much time is spent behind the scenes. In many war novels, the action takes place mainly on the battlefields or at various places in between battles. That's definitely not so here. Some chapters are spent on the battlefields, but usually more activity takes place behind the lines. However, much of the book is set off the familiar fields of battle and takes place at army headquarters or somewhere else near the commanding offficers at night or early in the morning. These sections show in detail how much planning and how many tough, often critical, decisions go into winning - or losing - a battle and, on a larger scale, a war.
One diffficult thing about reading and comprehending The Killer Angels, however, is how many officers are involved. It can often get very confusing and, if you don't know who's who, it's pointless to read the book. A good way to keep characters straight is to print out a copy of the regimental order of battle for both sides at Gettysburg. ... Trust me, it helps a lot.
Possibly the most significant reason that this book is so fantastic is that Michael Shaara's writing style really makes you feel as if you are there and know the characters well. This is a very difficult concept to explain or understand, and there is only one way to truly grasp the meaning of it: read the book.
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Summary: Breathtaking and Innovative
Review: This book helped to launch an entire genre of fiction, the "historical novel", in which the author invents dialogue and interaction among a group of real life characters who all act in a manner consistent with their real-life models. Here, Shaara brings the battle of Gettysburg to life in gripping, emotional, historically accurate detail. The book will move you like few other "non-fiction" accounts of the battle or the Civil War itself ever can. Shaara doesn't appear to take sides in telling the story, as he cuts back and forth between extra-ordinary depictions of characters like Lee, Longstreet, Stuart on the Confederate side as well as Union participants like Joshua Chamberlain and George Meade. I especially enjoyed the interaction between Lee and Longstreet, who tried to talk Lee out of a frontal assault at Gettysburg in favor of a defensive maneuver in which the southern armies stood in the path of Washington D.C., as well as the heroic exploits of Virginia's Lewis Armistead, who gallantly charged under General Pickett hoping he wouldn't be forced to confront his good friend, Union General Win Hancock. The novel is filled with gripping, true to life storylines where generals and their inferior officers came to life in Shaara's skillful hands. The research done to support The Killer Angels was obviously meticulous, and the book includes maps to give the reader a sense of the overall development of the battle, to accompany the personal interactions of the participants. If you are a Civil War buff you owe it to yourself to read this book, which is far superior to the later, similar novels written about the war, both pre- and post-Gettysburg, by the late author's son Jeff Shaara. If you are not all that interested in the War Between the States, read The Killer Angels anyway, and you may find yourself looking for more, like the 3 part history of the war by Shelby Foote, which this novel inspired me to read. I give it an enthusiastic five stars.
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Summary: This book is cool = D
Review: The Killer Angels reviewed by Joseph Lee The Killer Angels, written by Michael Shaara, will surely not disappoint the fans of books on war and battles. Shown by this novel, it seems that Michael Shaara is an expert at this topic of story. This novel will keep you intensely caught up as if you were reading straight out of a Civil War journal that got every glimpse of the battle of Gettysburg. It's not a surprise that this book has won the Pulitzer Prize. With its maps and its well-written text that people can understand in very well, the novel is easy to follow through. Even though this novel is only based on three days, it will give out very good information. The book is mainly based on the characters of General Robert E. Lee and General Mead. Although they are the main characters, many sections of the novel are put towards General Chamberlain, General Longstreet, General Buford, and General Pickett. Each chapter goes to a general and his men. It reveals the things they went through and what kind of fighting each regiment had through both eyes of the Confederate and the Union. This novel truly showed what two sides of one nation and the dreams of both sides were fighting for in the four bloodiest days of the United States of Americas history. This novel makes a reenactment in your head. Showing that not only did the soldiers go into war with just orders, but with honor, pride, dreams, vengeance, and moral issues that was stirred up by the society of the 1800's. As Michael Shaara shows the generals, he doesn't just tell the reader a story but he brings in the reader by showing the mind of the Generals. Shaara shows things like the strategies the Generals had, the ideas that the Generals came up with, how the Generals felt about the other side, and on what they felt about the war (why their in it and why should they be). For anyone who wants to know more about the Civil War or just wants a great a good adventure, this book is strongly recommended. I feel this book was just extraordinary in detail and in climax. Chapter after chapter the climax builds and builds and even though the reader knows what went on in the war, this novel is still strongly recommended. This novel may just give the reader some things they didn't know.
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Summary: Wow.
Review: The Killer Angels is one of, if not the greatest and most compassionately written war books of anybody's generation. By showing both sides of the fight without showing favorites, Shaara really does show that there are no winners in war. He gets through all the myths and goes straight to the meaning of this legendary battle. Taking place in the few days before and after the Battle of Gettysburg, Shaara depicts a feeling of camaraderie and hope in both armies. The main characters, such as Peter Longstreet, Joshua Chamberlain, and Robert Lee, are beautifully developed and readers will get up close and personal with their thoughts and feelings of what is going on during their day.
The South is portrayed not as slave drivers with a thirst for power, but rather as people fighting for what they believe in. As a soldier for the Confederacy put it, the war was not about slavery. Instead it is as if the South joined a club, and as easily as they were admitted, they want out, but the North will not have that.
Placed through out the book is a series of maps to better the understanding of the peril of each army's stance in the war. Greatly researched, the maps provide positions of different brigades and squadrons, their general, and an estimate, shown in size, of how many soldiers are in each group. Shaara also seperaes the book into different days, starting on day 1 and ending on day 4. The first two days are spent explaining each army's predicaments and feelings of their situations. The second two are an in-depth portrayal of the losses and emotional roller coaster war can rage on soldiers.
Not being an avid Civil War enthusiast, several people recommended this book to me, and it could not have been a better suggestion. This book surpasses far and beyond what a movie could in entertainment and educational value. I found myself flipping page after page as I became engrossed in Michael Shaara's interpretation of the American Civil War in, The Killer Angels.
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Summary: Three Days of Fury.
Review: I was always interested in Americas' Civil War and had read some excellent books on the subject such as "A Brotherhood of Valor", "Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg", "Battle Cry of Freedom" but "The Killer Angels" is a very special one.
Michael Shaara has performed an excellent research on private papers of the protagonists of this battle. Based on this material he produce a griping story, presenting the men that march to the tragic encounter, with their ideals, memories, sorrows, doubts, hopes.
He follows Generals Lee and Longstreet, Colonel Chamberlain among others, penetrating their most intimate thoughts in a way the reader can't avoid wondering how is it possible.
Mr. Shaara does not pick sides, he presents the reader with the confronting "Cause", which every man into the field believes to be just, and for which is willing to shed his blood. The valor and self sacrifice these men deploy, is reflected in each page of this incredible good book.
Enough maps are shown enabling the reader to follow the displacement of the armies in the field.
For the readers interested in this matter, the son of Michael Shaara, Jeff, has written "Gods & Generals" and "The Last Full Measure" telling the events preceding and following this crucial struggle.
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Summary: Why Study War Anymore: Echoes of Preceding Generations.
Review: My title is a takeoff on a 60s-70s chant--"We will study war no more." Michael Shaara's book, which won a Pulitzer in 1974, shows why we SHOULD study war. He has taken his vast knowledge of the Civil War in general, and Gettysbury in particular, and shaped an historical novel, not exceedingly long, than delves into the lives, motivations, thoughts, feelings, and goals, of many types of people who participated in this great struggle for definition of what it is to be American, to be a citizen of the United States (which, after the war, noted Shelby Foote, a singular noun). In my opinion, and knowing personally about Europeans' interest in our Civil War, this book belongs in the Canon of the Literature of Western Civilization...how can I say this? It isn't just because I'm interested in the same topic. On a recent airline flight, I had the opportunity to spend about an hour explaining "To Kill a Mockingbird" to a young European woman who was assigned that book to read in a high school in Texas....she was in her senior year, with a father in the oil business. Four months later, I received an e-mail, thanking me for that time, and she commented that her teacher was amazed that she had understood the book, and the issues (the enduring prejudice against blacks in the South long after "Reconstruction." Why is it relevant? We think we "reconstructed" Europe after World War II--and she realized we hadn't. The same problems we have 140 years after the spring campaigns of 1864, we also see in Europe only 60 years after the dawning of D-Day. We have International Courts, the EU, common currencies, almost instantaneous communication worldwide, and what progress has been made? A reading of the Killer Angels will stay with you, cause you to think, and demand that YOUR children study war. And so help us, the more who understand it, the better.
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Summary: When the Union come march home
Review: The Killer Angels was a good book.I liked how it changed Generals, for example, from Lee to Chamberlain. It was a long book. It had all 4 days of the battle of Gettysburg.The Generals having to go thourgh hard battles. All the men having to kill the other men.
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