The Killer Angels | The Killer Angels

There is a Reason This Won a Pulitzer Prize | The Killer Angels | Michael Shaara

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	• The Killer Angels Michael Shaara Ballantine Books, 2001 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 517 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beautifully written and a joy to read

One of two books read in my entire lifetime that I consider a masterpiece.

This book's language is sweet, smooth-flowing, stunning in its simplicity and focus. The Battle of Gettysburg is well documented and has been written about since July 4, 1863..... but to someone unversed in warfare and battlefields, it brought home the bravery, certainty and uncertainty, fear, foolishness, conflicts, nobility, and humanity of the men struggling to survive the 3 days in Pennsylvania that turned the tide of the war.

I loved the structure of the novel - alternating chapters among the key figures of the war - Lee, Chamberlain, Longstreet, Buford, Armistead, The Spy, Freemantle. I appreciated the maps, the brief biographical notes at the beginning of the novel and the afterward describing the principal characters lives after the war.

I want to learn more about Longstreet and Chamberlain particularly and want to see Gettysburg.

I'm not sure I could have appreciated this book at any earlier time in my life so am grateful that I've read it now.

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The Killer Angels

Michael Shaara's magnificent historical novel on the Battle of Gettysburg is history at its finest. Shaara gives us a study of leadership which gives us a personal perspective of courage and leadership. Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain shows us a man of books thrust into war and how he handles a very critical moment when the fate of the battle hangs on what he decides. We witness Confederate General Longstreet struggle with personal tragedy and the curse of being strategically ahead of his time. The study of leadership on both sides is of such quality that today many collegiate R.O.T.C. programs have made Killer Angels a required text. A must read for any Civil War buff.

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There is a Reason This Won a Pulitzer Prize

"The Killer Angels" is several books in one. First, it is a splendid overview of the Battle of Gettysburg. From Buford's establishing the high ground, the armies converging on the previously inconsequential place, Lee overriding Longstreet's tactical advice, and Chamberlain's countercharge when the ammunition ran out to Pickett's ill fated charge on the final day, Shaara describes the battle in riveting detail. The sights, the sounds, the smells,the emotions....everything is portrayed in a narrative that puts the reader squarely in the middle of the battle.

But the book is so much more. Shaara climbs inside the heads of the key players--particularly Longstreet and Chamberlain. Longstreet, the old warrior who has inherited Stonewall Jackson's position as Lee's right hand, is a tactician far ahead of his time who has, for a variety of reasons, become somewhat jaded on life in general and on "the glorious cause" in particular. Chamberlain is the Bowdoin college professor who volunteered for the war and found that, despite its horrors, he truly loves it. And then there is Lo Armistead who swore he would never fight his friend and soulmate Win Hancock, but ends up having to do exactly that on the final day.

Shaara examines Lee in considerable detail--his struggle with breaking his vows to the Union because he could not fight against his homeland (Virginia), his physical problems as an overworked fifty-seven year old man with cardiac problems and his deep religious faith. He is also exposed as a mediocre tactician whose great strengths are his character, his ability to inspire his men and his ability to act decisively.

Through the British observer, Freemantle, the Southern cultural structure is observed as being very similar to that of Great Britain. In fact, Freemantle at one point envisions the Confederacy returning to the Queen if it were to win the war.

The depth of this relatively small historical novel is immense. The battle is explained with numerous helpful maps, and both the foreword and the afterword set the participants in their proper historical perspective. The narrative is simple but compelling. This is one of the very finest books I have ever read....in any genre. It absolutely deserved the Pulitzer Prize it won in 1975!!!

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history class

This book is great. The point of view is that of the other person. I had to buy this book for AP US History and I don't regret it!

After more than a quarter of a century and three million copies in print, Michael Shaara?s Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War classic, The Killer Angels, remains as vivid and powerful as the day it was originally published. This handsome new hardcover edition introduces a whole new generation to Shaara?s masterpiece?and offers readers everywhere a literary keepsake for years to come.

July 1863. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia is invading the North. General Robert E. Lee has made this daring and massive move with seventy thousand men in a determined effort to draw out the Union Army of the Potomac and mortally wound it. His right hand is General James Longstreet, a brooding man who is loyal to Lee but stubbornly argues against his plan. Opposing them is an unknown factor: General George Meade, who has taken command of the Army only two days before what will be perhaps the crucial battle of the Civil War.

In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation?s history, two armies fight for two conflicting dreams. One dreams of freedom, the other of a way of life. More than rifles and bullets are carried into battle. The soldiers carry memories. Promises. Love. And more than men fall on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty are also the casualties of war.

The Killer Angels is unique, sweeping, unforgettable?a dramatic re-creation of the battleground for America?s destiny.

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