Customer Reviews

The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War

5 star:		(324)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Remarkable.
Simply remarkable.

As a Canadian, born and bred, the American Civil War has always been something of a mystery to me. Call me ignorant, but I was often slightly confused who wore what uniforms, what exactly happened, and who that Robert E. Lee guy fought for.

Well, this certainly brought everything into focus. Michael Shaara takes you into the build-up and through the Battle of Gettysburg, the pivotal battle that decided the fate of the Southern uprising. Going lower to the ground, looking through the eyes of generals and commanders on both sides, you really get a first-hand account of what happened on those fateful few days leading up to the 4th of July when the Rebels officially retreated, pulling back from Gettysburg. That's not a spoiler - that's history, but even though you know it, you can't help but furiously turn pages until you hit the last.

Also, extremely helpful are diagrams and maps of the area and troops formations throughout the battle. Really makes it easier to see exactly what was going on. Even more interesting are the maps detailing what a certain side 'thought' the other side's formation was, in comparison with what was actually there.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with this read. I had no previous interest in the Civil War whatsoever, but I got my education seemingly from Chamberlin, Longstreet, and maybe even a thing or two from General Lee himself.

5/5.

Nothing I can say that others haven't already. It's a wonderful book, and if you decide to read it, you'll be very glad you did!

This book came out during a period when I had no time to read. Then when the time came along, it was next to impossible to find a copy. I finally did track one down and was blown away. I adore Scottish History, but since I was raised part time in the States, I grew to love the complexities of the Civil War (in the South US it's called the War Between the States). The reasons for the war, the motivation for people to fight their neighbour, often their own brother or family members was mesmerising. Bruce Catton gave me such insight into all the factors through his marvellous works, so I thought no writer could touch him in making you feel, see and understand the men, the generals, the affect the Civil War had on a nation.

However, a writer did, and oddly enough with fiction. Michael Shaara won a Pulitzer Prize for the moving work that focuses on the one pivotal battle, the high-water mark of the War Between the States. He gives you the frustration of men driven to kill their brothers, of the futility, the waste. Centring on Lee, floundering at the loss of his right hand Jackson, of being cut off from screening and blind without information because Stuart was on one of his glory rides, of one general who could not follow orders, of another, Longstreet, who followed them to the letter knowing he was sending his 'boys' to their death in the glorious, yet ultimately disastrous Pickett's charge.

But it through Col. J.L. Chamberlain where Shaara succeeds the most, in giving you the humanity, the nightmare, the pathos, of the men of 20th Maine regiment, volunteers who held the Union's left flank on the second day of the battle at Little Round Top.

The book is so moving, so touching that it makes you view the war in a way you never have before. If only, he had included Captain James Hall of the 2nd Maine Battery...

This was turned into the wonderful film GETTYSBURG, which I also recommend highly with some truly memorable performances. However, be sure to read the book as well, for you will never forget the beautiful prose of Shaara.

Also recommended are Jeff Shaara his son's books that form a trilogy with Gods and General the prequel and The Last Full Measure the Ending.

This book came out during a period when I had no time to read. Then when the time came along, it was next to impossible to find a copy. I finally did track one down and was blown away. I adore Scottish History, but since I was raised part time in the States, I grew to love the complexities of the Civil War (in the South US it's called the War Between the States). The reasons for the war, the motivation for people to fight their neighbour, often their own brother or family members was mesmerising. Bruce Catton gave me such insight into all the factors through his marvellous works, so I thought no writer could touch him in making you feel, see and understand the men, the generals, the affect the Civil War had on a nation.

However, a writer did, and oddly enough with fiction. Michael Shaara won a Pulitzer Prize for the moving work that focuses on the one pivotal battle, the high-water mark of the War Between the States. He gives you the frustration of men driven to kill their brothers, of the futility, the waste. Centring on Lee, floundering at the loss of his right hand Jackson, of being cut off from screening and blind without information because Stuart was on one of his glory rides, of one general who could not follow orders, of another, Longstreet, who followed them to the letter knowing he was sending his 'boys' to their death in the glorious, yet ultimately disastrous Pickett's charge.

But it through Col. J.L. Chamberlain where Shaara succeeds the most, in giving you the humanity, the nightmare, the pathos, of the men of 20th Maine regiment, volunteers who held the Union's left flank on the second day of the battle at Little Round Top.

The book is so moving, so touching that it makes you view the war in a way you never have before. If only, he had included Captain James Hall of the 2nd Maine Battery...

This was turned into the wonderful film GETTYSBURG, which I also recommend highly with some truly memorable performances. However, be sure to read the book as well, for you will never forget the beautiful prose of Shaara.

Also recommended are Jeff Shaara his son's books that form a trilogy with Gods and General the prequel and The Last Full Measure the Ending.

I was told I could read this book for extra credit by my College American History Professor. The only reason I read it was because I wanted the extra credit to get an "A" in the class. Not only did I end up getting an "A" in the class, but I got pulled into, page by page, the greatest battle in American History. The Battle of Gettysburg.

This book was wonderful. The battles, vivid and real, make you feel like you are on the battlefield fighting on whichever side you agree with.

The book is written, chapter by chapter, in the views of the major players in Gettysburg, and the Civil War. You get to know these American greats on a personal level and understand how they feel.

The movie based on this novel, entitled, "Gettysburg", is just as powerful and does a great job of following the novel.

Although Michael Shaara is not around anymore, his son Jeff Shaara has continued, with his fathers writing style, this wonderful saga with the battles before Gettysburg, in "Gods and Generals" and the battles after Gettysburg, in "The Last Full Measure". Do not pass this wonderful piece of literature up. You will walk away from this book with a real sense of knowing about our American Civil War.

Enjoy

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.

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.

This is one of the worst books that I have read. It's even worse than the movie "Gettysburg." Michael Shaara takes so much liberty in pasting characters onto the important figures in his book. If one who doesn't know too much about the battle and the generals (as persons), then one WILL come away with a greatly warped and false view of the battle, it's importance, and the relative importance of each of the generals and officers who actually fought the REAL battle (not some dramatized, sentimental, fictitious battle in the imagination of some dreamer).

The worst thing about this book is that it SEEMS to be somewhat historical. But it's not. Nobody knows who gave the command for the charge of the 20'th Maine, but it wasn't Chamberlain. And, their position was hardly as important as the book made it seem. There were plenty of reinforcements from the V or VI corps lying around to plug up any break through in the Union lines. The important part of the battle was already over on the first day! The rest was almost needless and futile blood shed, on the part of the South (though I say it with the advantage of hindsight and knowledge of the Yankee army that Gen. Lee didn't have) ....

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.

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.