The Last Full Measure

Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel, enjoyable, well researched and exciting
Review: 'The Last Full Measure' is the third and final episode in the Civil War trilogy written by father and son authors Michael and Jeff Shaara. For those of you who are unaware of the chronology, father Michael Shaara wrote 'The Killer Angels' an excellent account of the battle of Gettysburg. On the death of Michael Shaara his son Jeff was approach to write a prequel to 'Killer Angels'. Consequently 'Gods and Generals' is an account of the war from its beginnings up to the battle of Gettysburg. 'The Last Full Measure' concludes the story of the war, taking us from Gettysburg to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House and beyond.

With 'The Last Full Measure', Jeff Shaara has, I feel, written a book that will enable him to step out from the shadow of his father's book. 'Killer Angels' is often described as the best piece of civil war fiction written, thus Jeff Shaara had a great deal to live up to. Shaara has matured as a writer, his characterisation is more believable and his writing style improved. As I really enjoyed his first book 'Gods and Generals', these improvements place 'The Last Full Measure' alongside not only his father's book but also a great deal of civil war fiction.

Still using interior dialogue and the description of the thoughts of the characters he writes about, Shaara has created an excellent account of the motivations of, among others, Lee, Grant, Longstreet and Chamberlain. The book takes us through Grants Wilderness campaign, the siege of Petersburg to the final surrender at Appomattox. A danger could have been attempting to condense these events too much, leaving the reader unsatisfied at the lack of description. However, although Shaara does skip some of the details he writes so convincingly that the reader will be swept along with both excitement and anticipation. Shaara's battle scenes are excellent, they are both vivid and horrific and give the reader a sense of what it must have felt like to exist in the throes of battle. Similarly he writes well of the emotions of war and how it changed those who experienced it. This is an excellent novel, it is extremely well written and will be enjoyed by both the civil war enthusiasts and the general reader alike. I recommend it to you

Rating:
Summary: A Civil War book that is not linear history.
Review: Like most people I first learned of the Civil War via the timeline. In 1861 South Carolina seceded and them attacked Ft. Sumter, Gettysburg was in 1863 and Appomattox in 1865. And of course Lee was great, McClellan was bad and Grant just had more men.

The Last Full Measure (as well as Shaara's previous work and his father's) brings a much more holistic look to the Civil War--with more than just dates and places. He attempts to place you inside the conversations between generals, inside the minds of Lee, Grant, Chamberlain and others. The result is that the dates and places have much greater meaning and the horrors of war become much more real.

Reading this series will teach you that war is more than battles with guns. War is battles for supplies--food, ammunition, guns, clothes. The North was not victorious because they were better fighters as much as they were better equiped, larger in number and better fed. The Civil War was about more than slavery or states rights, it was also a fundamental difference between an agrarian and budding industrial societies.

The last few chapters drag on to the inevitable end, but I enjoy his writing style and Shaara does not disapoint. A great finale to the trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Read
Review: This book should appeal to those who enjoyed The Killer Angels. The most difficult task for the history-lover is getting beyond the made-up dialogue in historical fictions such as this. The author's tight adherence to historical fact and chronology make this task easy; the novel therefore suceeds as both an interesting personal drama of the principal characters (first) and well-written and very readable history (second). The novel is strongest when it is analyzing the thought process behind a character's actions (e.g., Lee's moves during battle). I also commend Mr. Shaara on presenting a fairly balanced view that does not favor the merit's of either side's cause too strongly.

Rating:
Summary: A Few Small Problems, but...
Review: As with his father's "Killer Angels," and his own "Gods & Generals," "The Last Full Measure" is an enjoyable book, perhaps even for the non Civil-War buff. It reads easily, never really bogs down, while still providing enough salient details to satisfy this reader's need for historical authenticity, despite the obvious license.

However, I feel Shaara missed several golden opportunities to detail the character of his main men:

1. The decision making prior to the battle of Cold Harbor. This was one of the worst mistakes made by command-level soldiers in the entire war. Shaara certainly could have gone into what occurred before the doomed assault, and made what happened next even more ill-fated. That pales with omitting

2. What happened after. For 3 days, Grant refused to ask Lee for a truce to relieve the suffering of the wounded, and to retrieve the dead. Grant dickered over the wording of the truce, and would not come right out and just <ask> Lee to grant it to him. All the while the wounded suffered horribly, and very few made it out after Grant finally asked Lee for a truce. This was actually consistent with what Shaara posits, and history tells as Grant's method for ending the war more quickly. But the pathos involved, the tragedy, seems to be almost to good for a writer who clearly revels in such things to pass up. But he did.

3. I would have liked more detail on the conversation with Sherman, Grant, David Dixon Porter and Lincoln about the end of the war. I feel that set up a lot of the post-war attitude, certainly of Grant and Sherman, who reamined determined to be true to Lincoln's spirit, and Shaara has Grant, Lincoln and Sherman in the same room--it would have been nice to go further.

These are perhaps little quibbles (there are others, but...) in an overall very enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: Must Read for all people interested in the Civil War
Review: AThis is a book that will be a classic very soon. If you ever wanted to feel a part of the Civil War, I mean go back and be in the middle of it, this is the one you want to read. While reading it, you will feel a part of the Civil War. You will understand the "Big Picture" in a way that you have not before. It's a great book!

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: I THOUGHT THIS WAS AN OUTSTANDING BOOK THAT REALLY BROUGHT TO LIFE WHAT THE SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR WENT THRU, AND TRIUMPHS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BATTLE. I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE, IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ.

Rating:
Summary: Review for The Last Full Measure
Review: I found this book very entertaining in the fact that the author takes no sides in this excellent Civil War novel. Schaara creates vivid, realistic scenes of battle and camp in a one of a kind plot. The book takes you on a twisting path through the last years of the American Civil War. The book shows viewpoints from several important figures of the war including: Ulysees S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Joshua L. Chamberlain, and several others. Overall, I found this book an excellent ending to an excellent trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the Three
Review: This 3rd book (in what has now become a trilogy) is perhaps the best of them. And that is saying alot considering that "Killer Angels" won Michael Shaara a Pulizer. In "The Last Full Measure", his son Jeff Shaara sweeps the last 2 years of war with eloquent and driving prose. This was a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Foregone conclusion
Review: I wanted very much to enjoy this book.

Back in the early 70's, I was on a graduate school sabbatical from the Army. The Killer Angels had just received the Pulitzer, and the man who shared my office, another Army officer bound for the West Point faculty, encouraged me to read it. He later re-wrote the Army leadership manual with references to Chamberlain at Little Round Top. For years, the Army harbored something like a Chamberlain cult.

The trouble with Last Full Measure -- like its predecessor, Gods and Generals -- is that is so very broadly focused, we are unable to put aside the simple fact that we know how it ends. TKA told the story of a few days, and the points of view were carefully chosen. Jeff Shaara didn't have the luxury of such lapidary perfection, since he chose to tell the story of the whole war in the east. Under such circumstances, the normal tools of fiction are likely to be trampled by the rampaging elephant of history.

Some of the touches are nice, but the characters tend to be too self-consciously noble in their private motives. Wars are won by SOBs, not by generals with the qualities of a noble horse. In particular, Jackson seems a bit mild and introspective; he may have been introspective (though I don't think I'd like to eavesdrop on his private musings!), but such mildness as he possessed serves best in giving depth to a manner and motivation as hard as obsidian, and somewhat blacker. This general's God was not given to forgiveness and leniency, and Jackson's background craziness -- like Patton's and yet different -- is far more interesting than the kitsch of gentle religiosity.

For a different and perhaps more realistic view, I recommend Tom Wicker's "Unto this Hour." As a Civil War buff, I wouldn't have missed Jeff Shaara's work, but read Bierce as an antidote for all that idealizing.

Rating:
Summary: Last Full Measure Matches Up to Prequel
Review: Jeff Shaara's "Last Full Measure" is one of the best books that I have ever read. It depicts the struggles of war like no other and illustrates the characters magnificently. I have never been moved so much by a book. Jeff Shaara is almost definitely on the level of his father. Killer Angels has always been my favorite but after reading "The Last Full Measure" I am forced to reconsider. This book is extremely well written and I recommend it for anyone with an interest in the Civil War.