Product Description

A reissue of a Pulitzer prize-winning classic, and now the major motion picture GETTYSBURG. As a result of these acclamations, this book is considered one of the greatest novels written on the Civil War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #704179 in Books
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 608 pages

From Amazon.com
This novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned nonfiction on the same subject. Michael Shaara's account of the three most important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of the main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most inspiring figure in the book, however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left flank on the second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned the tide of the war against the rebels. There are also plenty of maps, which convey a complete sense of what happened July 1-3, 1863. Reading about the past is rarely so much fun as on these pages.

From Library Journal
The late Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (1974) concerns the battle of Gettysburg and was the basis for the 1993 film Gettysburg. The events immediately before and during the battle are seen through the eyes of Confederate Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Armistead and Federal General Buford, Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, and a host of others. The author's ability to convey the thoughts of men in war as well as their confusion-the so-called "fog of battle"-is outstanding. This unabridged version is read clearly by award-winning actor George Hearn, who gives each character a different voice and effectively conveys their personalities; chapters and beginnings and ends of sides are announced. Music from the movie version adds to the drama. All this comes in a beautiful package with a battle map. Recommended for public libraries not owning previous editions from Recorded Books and Blackstone Audio (Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/92 and LJ 2/1/93, respectively).
Michael T. Fein, Catawba Valley Community Coll., Hickory, N.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Battle of Gettysburg makes inspiring listening in both the unabridged and abridged forms. The recent release of HighBridge's abridged version brings the compelling story to a broader audience. George Heard delivers a colorful interpretation, using Southern voices for the Confederate generals and a hard-edged Northern cadence for the Yankees. Hearn's version is dramatic and is highlighted with excerpts from Randy Edelman's stirring score from the movie adaptation, GETTYSBURG . An added plus is a map that spans the three days of the battle. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Why Study War Anymore: Echoes of Preceding Generations.
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.

Fictional Story of a Battle similar to Battle of Gettysburg
This novel is a fictional narrative of a battle that resembles the Battle of Gettysburg. Please remember this! This book is no more a historical account of the Battle of Gettysburg than Colleen McCullough's "First Man in Rome" is an account of the life of Marius and Sulla.

If you want to know about the Battle of Gettysburg, read Coddington's masterpiece, or try Pfanz's excellent books. Thomas Desjardin also wrote a very good book about the 20th Maine and the real Joshua L. Chamberlain. Desjardin puts the 20th Maine's intense skirmish with the 15th Alabama on Vincent's Spur into perspective.

Shaara unfortunately places considerable emphasis on the engagement because it makes for a dramatic story, not because it was of monumental historical significance. In their first real taste of battle, the ~450 brave boys from Maine outfought the battlehardened ~450 soldiers from Alabama using superior tactics and advantageous terrain. Had the 20th Maine fled however, the exhausted, thirsty, and unsupported 15th Alabama would have run into the virtually uninjured 83rd Pennsylvania. The significance of the 20th Maine's success was that these raw troops killed, wounded, or captured more than they themselves were killed, wounded, or captured. They did not, however, by their actions that day save the Union.

I must also take exception with Shaara's bizarre portrayal of Lee. Douglas Freeman's biography of Lee is the place to look for a historical account of Lee.

If you are looking for a fictional tale set during the Civil War, this may be the book for you. If, however, you want to know what happened at Gettysburg and why, look elsewhere.

Historical fiction is amusing!
This book is pulp romance for men. Lee in love with the war, everyone in love with Lee. (An oddly humble, broken Lee for this period in his life) Plus! You get the bonus beautiful story of the underdog, Chamberlin, the professor who pulls, "a textbook maneuver and won the battle" (as Ken Burns put it).
His point: the south was an integrated army of men who shared culture and opinions with amazing charismatic leaders (so amazing that he doesn't need to use any southern soldiers as characters), the northern army was a higgledy-piggledy mess of cultures of diverse opinions who overcome poor leadership through a series of interesting coincidences and win that battle for truth, freedom, and UNION!
Hot damn! Give me some o' that manliness from an uncomplicated time when black was certainly not white and women couldn't interfere in the process of proving one's manhood. The rules were set, the men were great and rode great horses, and the battle was a vote by god for the north.
As the battle hymn of the republic faithfully proclaims before each chapter: Glory, Glory Halleluiah! His truth is marching on!