Rating: 
Summary: Well written but overly speculative
Review: Because I spent three summers at Arlington House as a National Park Service ranger, I've read a number of books about Robert E. Lee and his family, including Freeman's four volumes twice. Thomas's biography is well written and was especially helpful to me in sorting out aspects of Lee's pre-Civil War career that hadn't made sense to me before. Thomas' treatment of Lee's feckless father, Light Horse Harry, hits close to the mark, and I'm ready to accept Mrs. Lee as more small-minded than I would have credited ten years ago. Thomas is perhaps a bit tough on Lee's father-in-law, G.W.P. Custis, and I would have liked the author to spend more time with Lee's mother-in-law, Mary Fitzhugh Custis, whose influence on Lee and his family was enormous. Thomas' attempt to read double-entendres into Lee's early pleasantries with younger women is at best strained and at worse anachronistic. Thomas also has an imperfect understanding of evangelical religion in the nineteenth century and seems to think if the low-church Episcopalian Lee didn't discuss a conversion experience, then his confirmation in the church at age 46 was little more than a formality "to support his daughters' conviction" and "to honor his mother-in-law's piety." Thomas' attempt to substitute "God" for "true gentleman" in one of Lee's ruminations about ethics and read into it an "intriguing theological insight" is downright silly. (p. 397) One serious mistake needs to be corrected: the sensational charge that in June 1862, Lee was so preoccupied with his duties that he forgot his grandson had died and wrote to the boy's mother asking her to "kiss [him] for me." Thomas might have reflected on the improbability of this story and double-checked the primary sources. Actually, the boy died in July. It is a notorious example of information both true and sensational-but with the sensational untrue and the true not sensational. Lee was not, of course, the myth that he started to become by the end of the Civil War, and Thomas is correct to emphasize Lee as a tragic hero. Nevertheless, Freeman's Lee, the uncomplicated man of duty is closer to the truth than Thomas' paradox striving "to be independent, to be free."
Rating: 
Summary: An objective but sympathetic look at Lee.
Review: I thought this was a personal biography of Robert E. Lee. I think some of the previous reviewers were looking for a military biography. But book talks more about Lee as a man instead of Lee as a military commander. On that, I found the book to be rather refreshing in outlook as the author intregated Lee's personal life into his military performances. The author appears to be pretty sympathetic toward Lee, as a man with many problems at home before, during and after the Civil War. He writes with clarity and with empathy which helped the reader understand what sort of a man Lee was. While an analyical look, I found the book readable, enlightening and well presented.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably focused too much on Lee's weaknesses.
Review: Knowing practically nothing about Robert E. Lee, I hoped this book would give me insight as to why he was such as great man and legend. Instead, Emory Thomas gave me the impression that Lee was a womanizer-wannabe and a bumbling general, and that his greatest accomplishments were as an engineer on the Mississippi River and as president of Washington College. Surely, Lee must have been more than that for him to be revered as he is. In the Preface, the author gives the impression that Douglas Freeman's "R. E. Lee: A Biography" focused on the legend and that Emory Thomas would focus on the "whole". Not knowing much about Lee to begin with, I felt Thomas missed his target.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling readable Biography
Review: Professor Thomas has written a compelling and highly readable biography of an increasingly controversial figure. We are now told that to esteem the memory of General Lee is somehow to honor slavery and man's inhumanity to man. Professor Thomas provides us with a welcome antidote to this deconstructionist thinking. The author gives us a portrait of a man who was thoroughly human. Possessing great faults but also possessing real character. I would lay only two faults to the book; First, the author's rather tiresome attempts at psychoanalysis, attempting to explain Lee's entire life in terms of difficult personal relationships. Secondly , it is obvious that Professor Thomas is not a military historian and he gives only a general analysis of Lee's strategic vision and his military career generally. Also I found his criticism of James Longstreet to be just a little over the line. Nonetheless this is an excellent biography and I highly reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Lee the Man and Warrior
Review: This book is a biography of Lee the man, not an examination of one of our history's most notable generals. The military side of Lee is, of course, a major part of Thomas's story. However, he has attempted to paint a charactor study of Robert E. Lee so that his deportment and decisions during the Civil War can be seen to flow from a man molded by tradition, duty, honor and the uniquely historic family from which he came. This means that the book spends much time on Lee's pre Civil War life as well as time delving into his relationships with his family and others. The result is a readible book that gives the reader an entre into the man Robert E. Lee. Those looking for a military expose or exploration may be somewhat disappointed, but this is still a worthwhile book.
Rating:
Summary: Lee the Man and Warrior
Review: This book is a biography of Lee the man, not an examination of one of our history's most notable generals. The military side of Lee is, of course, a major part of Thomas's story. However, he has attempted to paint a charactor study of Robert E. Lee so that his deportment and decisions during the Civil War can be seen to flow from a man molded by tradition, duty, honor and the uniquely historic family from which he came. This means that the book spends much time on Lee's pre Civil War life as well as time delving into his relationships with his family and others. The result is a readible book that gives the reader an entre into the man Robert E. Lee. Those looking for a military expose or exploration may be somewhat disappointed, but this is still a worthwhile book.
Rating:
Summary: Very factual, objective biography
Review: This book was a very factual, steadily-flowing, concise 1-volume biography of General Lee's entire life. I had read reviews here that felt this book did not focus enough on Lee's Civil War battles, but I thought the author (Emory Thomas) focused as much as he could (in a 1-volume biography) on Lee's Civil War conflicts. Robert E. Lee was an amazing figure, and Thomas does a good job portraying him fairly; neither deifying Lee, nor demonizing him either.
Rating:
Summary: Very factual, objective biography
Review: This book was a very factual, steadily-flowing, concise 1-volume biography of General Lee's entire life. I had read reviews here that felt this book did not focus enough on Lee's Civil War battles, but I thought the author (Emory Thomas) focused as much as he could (in a 1-volume biography) on Lee's Civil War conflicts. Robert E. Lee was an amazing figure, and Thomas does a good job portraying him fairly; neither deifying Lee, nor demonizing him either.
Rating: 
Summary: Super factual biography
Review: This is a great biography of Lee, and it provides a lot of insight onto his character, which is sometimes blown up to so great an extent that he appears colossal. This book's attempt is to cut him down to fact, and it does just that, but leaves him no less admirable than before. I was fascinated by its vast collection of his letters, some of which are less that familiar to the public. If you want a great biography of lee, read this. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Save Your Money!
Review: thomas does an extraordinary job of descibing the whole man in this book. It in no way glamourizes Lee as a man. It tells much about his shortcomings as a husband and father and friend. Robert E lee was not larger than life and Thomas makes that clear. In relation to relating Lee's shortcomings;however,Thomas often mentions Lee's zeal for women other than his wife but never makes it known if these liasions with other women were platonic or otherwise adulturous. All in all it is a detailed and informative work.
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