Rating: 
Summary: Book Review of The Killer Angels
Review: Cannonballs soaring through the air accompanied by thunderous claps. Countless rifles firing, releasing tremendous force and a barrage of bullets. Thousands of men dead or wounded. The American Civil War is in full force, and the two armies have collided at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is the most significant battle of the war, which decides the future of the United States of America. The Killer Angels is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that takes the reader onto the battlefield. It masterfully depicts the bloodshed, bravery, and strategy at Gettysburg with complete historical accuracy, while maintaining the reader's interest and a state of unrelenting suspense. I feel The Killer Angels is a superb novel. The excitement of the combat pours out from every page. The writer uses such clear language that everything is easily perceived, and the maps help a great deal in understanding the events that transpired. The motives of both sides and the thoughts of the Generals are shown, providing very good insight into the reasons behind every decision, as well as the causes of the war itself. The story is told from the points of view of the important Generals involved in the fighting. This is a very important aspect, because it allows the reader to see both sides of the conflict and comprehend the moves each side makes, allowing for a full understanding of the ordeal. One can see why Buford decided to face the Confederates on the first day of battle although greatly outnumbered, or the reasons for Pickett's famous charge. This also shows the motives of each side in fighting the war. It may seem that the Confederates fought only to defend slavery, but the book shows that this is not so. Some commanders of the Rebel army were indeed outraged that people thought that the reason. Many of them did not even own slaves, and believed they were fighting for independence: freedom from the rule of the oppressive Washington government. The insight this book provides is terrific. From the mood of the armies, to the personalities of the Generals, to the emotions flying in the heat of battle, to the aftermath of the engagement and its effect on the Generals, not the slightest detail is omitted. You will feel as though you had been there at Gettysburg after reading this book. The combat is presented very clearly: the reader constantly knows what is going on and why. The Killer Angels is very suspenseful, for the reader is continuously wondering what will happen next: how will one General respond to the move of another, and will the plan work or not? The reader feels the agony that General Buford goes through as he orders his men to do their best to stop the Confederate advance, wonders if they will be able to hold until backup arrives, prays for backup to arrive on time, and questions whether it was a good idea in the first place. The book is full of unceasing action. It starts two days before battle when a spy brings General Longstreet the news that the Union army is very close. This catches the Rebs by surprise and they begin to mobilize for battle, although at first not believing the spy. Then there is the first day of fighting when Buford, commander of the Union cavalry, takes a stand against General Hill's troops at Gettysburg. Reynolds soon brings infantry to help Buford, and then Ewell's Corps and other Confederate divisions join the battle. The second day sees fighting at Devil's Den, on Little Round Top, and at the Peach Orchard and the Wheat Field, as the Confederates storm the Union forces with relentless attack, but the Army of the Potomac manages to stand its ground against the Rebels. On the third and final day of the battle, Lee orders a full-blown strike on the Union army along Cemetery Ridge despite Longstreet's disapproval of such a plan. The brave charge led by General Picket is stopped, and the Confederate army thus loses the battle of Gettysburg. All these events actually took place, and so I feel Michael Shaara has done a wonderful job in keeping The Killer Angels historically accurate. He has just changed some of the dialect so it is easier to understand, and eliminated the minor characters and unimportant occurrences for the sake of brevity. I enjoyed reading this book a whole lot. It was thrilling from beginning to end, and it fueled my interest in history. I was captivated by the battle scenes that came alive with the vivid details used by the author. The way the Michael Shaara managed to present both sides of the war allowed me to understand the true reasons for this bloody battle, and the causes of a civil war in America. I particularly enjoyed how much the Generals and soldiers were described in the novel because this allowed me to sympathize with them and understand their decisions and relationships with one another, as well as even put myself in their place, which made history much more interesting and personal than bare facts in a textbook could do. It was also a great idea of the author allow the reader to view the battle from the eyes of numerous different Generals. That definitely allowed me to comprehend all that took place, and all that caused it to take place, much better. I would certainly recommend The Killer Angels to others. If you enjoy history and the art of warfare, you will love this book. You will also find it worth your time if you just like a gripping story filled with excitement and adventure. Even if you do not know too much about the Civil War, you will not regret reading this novel. You will comprehend everything due to the clarity with which this book is written, and it will kindle your interest in history.
Rating:
Summary: Killer Angels...it doesn' t get any better!!
Review: Shaara has produced a small miracle in this book about the Gettysburg battle of July 1-3, 1863. The passion, the mistakes, the acts of heroism are all here with such smooth and powerful prose that you actually feel you are listening in on Lee and Longstreet, or standing next to Chamberlain at Little Round Top. This is living history at it's best. Told mostly from the side of the South, Shaara does give us a slice of Union action in one of history's most surprising "last stand" battles, The Battle of Little Round Top and Chamberlain's defense of it. As for Pickett's Charge, Shaara gives you the full tour. The decision before, the action during, the high emotions afteward as diaster befell the Rebs. If you have never, ever read a Civil War book before...buy this one. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: The best novel I have read about the US Civil War
Review: I live in Gettysburg PA, the town famous for an epic battle. Killer Angels reviews the battle of Gettysburg from the viewpoint of generals to often ignored: Longstreet, Buford and Chamberlain. It gives a good overview for the battle but is worthy for a much greater reason - it protrays accurately much of the time period - what the battle may have been like.It is a novel that portrays the Union and Confederate sides well, makes the reader sympathize with both sides, a difficult matter (especially for a Yankee like myself). I cannot recommend his son's books as highly but this novel, covering a period of four days is brilliant and well deserves the Pulitzer Prize it received.
Rating:
Summary: An engrossing novel
Review: While in college, I took a synthesis course on the human response to war. Most of the books we read were World War II and Vietnam. How on Earth this book wasn't included, I have no idea?
Sometimes this country takes for granted the Civil War. This book puts everything in perspective. Brother on brother. Generals fighting against their friends. It's the most important war in this country's history and maybe even the world's in the last 1,000 yaers.
Read this account about the Battle of Gettysburg to find out why.
Rating:
Summary: The beginning for a Civil War buff.
Review: I have little to add to the raves but this: Despite a good education, I had little other than a cursory knowledge of the Civil War until I read this book, a quarter-century ago. I spent the next five years reading everything I could find on the nation's seminal event. Thank you, Michael Shaara
Rating:
Summary: A Grand Tragedy
Review: As the existence of 259 reviews and a close to 5-star rating indicates, this is a book that will just blow you away. It's hard to imagine that anyone who reads it could fail to be deeply moved. It is quite simply one of the finest works of historical fiction ever written by any author. The best historical fiction can convey insights that may prove elusive for even the best writers of straight history, who are limited to what can be definitively known about the thoughts and motives of historical actors. One of the most impressive aspects of Shaara's book, for me, was the persuasive way he recreated the process by which Robert E. Lee convinced himself that the ill-fated assault history knows as Pickett's Charge had a reasonable chance of success. Indeed, the Confederate side of Shaara's novel reads like a Greek tragedy. General James Longstreet plays the role of chorus (or perhaps Cassandra), while Lee is the noble hero, but with an unusual twist: for his tragic flaw is not personal hubris or overconfidence in his own ability, but his fierce belief in the ability of the men he led to do more than what was humanly possible. The book rests on four great characters. In addition to Longstreet, Lee's key subordinate, the others are Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who commands a regiment of Maine volunteers; the Union cavalry General John Buford, whose stand west of Gettysburg on the first day of battle critically shapes the course of events that follows; and Lewis Armistead, an older Virginian who commands one of the brigades of Pickett's division. It is a tribute to the power of Shaara's characterizations of the latter three men that he has done much to rescue them from the historical obscurity into which they were fading. Now, there is a new statue of Buford on the field at Gettysburg west of the Lutheran Theological Seminary; Chamberlain's life has been chronicled in a major new biography, and his own war memoirs are back in print; and more visitors to Gettysburg undoubtedly make a point of seeking out the humble monument along Cemetery Ridge that marks the place where Armistead fell mortally wounded at the climax of Pickett's charge. This is a book of great set-pieces -- Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top, the final Confederate assault on Cemetery Ridge -- but the genius of Shaara's writing lies in its basic elements. His pacing is brilliant: alternating sentences of Proustian length with mere fragments, subordinate clause marches after subordinate clause, as the following excerpt from his legendary description of Pickett's Charge demonstrates: "Kemper's men had come apart, drifting left. There was a mass ahead but it did not seem to be moving. Up there the wall was a terrible thing, flame and smoke. [Armistead] had to squint to look at it, kept his head down, looked left, saw Pettigrew's men were still moving, but the neat lines were gone, growing confusion, the flags dropping, no Rebel yell now, no more screams of victory, the men falling here and there like trees before an invisible axe you could see them go one by one and in clumps, suddenly, in among the columns of smoke from the shell. Far to the left he saw: Pettigrew's men were running. . . . Armistead moved on, expecting to die, but was not hit. He moved closer to the wall up there, past mounds of bodies, no line any more, just men moving forward at different speeds, stopping to fire, stopping to die, drifting back like leaves blown from the fire ahead." Once you've read Shaara's fictional account of Gettysburg, I also recommend the treatment of the battle by Shelby Foote in the central chapters of the second volume of his Civil War trilogy. The Gettysburg chapters have also been published as a separate book, "Stars in Their Courses." It is as moving and beautifully written as Shaara's book, and has an equivalent ability to surprise you with fresh information and insights. If you haven't previously understood why the Battle of Gettysburg has the hold it does on America's historical imagination, these two books will make it clear.
Rating:
Summary: Great history and storytelling all in one book!
Review: A friend who lives near Gettysburg recommended this book to me. Although I love history, I had avoided war accounts thinking they'd be boring. Was I ever wrong! This account of the Battle of Gettysburg is great storytelling, and brings to life the men that fought this war. A stirring account that you'll want to read again and again!
Rating:
Summary: Civil War Comes to Life
Review: When I picked up this book, I really knew little or nothing about the Civil War or the major players. I knew Lincoln, Grant and Lee, and I knew which side won. I'll admit that I expected it to be a snooze, but I've seldom been more wrong. I was actually so interested in the characters, that I looked up photos of them so that my mental picture would be accurate. It's not easy to make blow-by-blow battle accounts engrossing, but Shaara manages this and more. Even though I knew the outcome of the battle, this was still a suspenseful account. One book won't make me an expert on it, but this novel really brought the Civil War to life for me.
Rating:
Summary: This book is an insight into the Humanity of soldiers
Review: The Killer Angels provides insight into the very men that shaped our country's history. It stripped away all the preconceived notions of the slave mongering, and morally decrepit Confederate Army. Many characters in this book could simply not fight against their family, even thought they swore an oath at Westpoint to defend the Union. Others merely wanted to defend their states' honor. Others believed that it was their constitutional right to govern themselves that they were fighting for. It is very possible that the underlying cause for the War was slavery, but not because men hungered to own other men as property. I have read some reviews by people for whom this book was required reading, and they have not been fair reviews. I truly feel sorry for anyone who does not have the capacity to understand this fine work of literature. And it is certainly Literature. This book is written so that you may glimpse into the mind of men with great burdens upon them, and makes you one of them. At the end of this book I had a lump in my throat because I feel now I can better understand the enormity of the burden these men faced. Read this book. You owe it to yourself. Whether you are interested in the Civil War, or any war for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to the Civil War
Review: This book has been reviewed by over 250 people, and the 5-star rating is well-deserved. I would add only that it's an excellent choice for 1) preparing for a trip to the area 2)getting young people or (forgive my stereotyping) women like myself who might otherwise claim to be uninterested in "war stuff" involved in the great storys of Gettysburg. A friend had his new British bride read it before a trip out, and she said it contributed immensely to her enjoyment. I'd been to Gettysburg myself, and was bored silly. I went back after viewing Ken Burns' "The Civil War" and reading "Killer Angels", and it was a far richer experience. Had to hike Little Round Top, envisioning scenes from the book the whole time.
|
