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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345348104
ISBN number: 0345348109
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: August 12, 1987
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: August 12, 1987
Sale Popularity Level: 4632
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'My favorite historical novel...A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.'
JAMES M. McPHERSON
Author of BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
Winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction
In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Shattered futures, forgotten innocence, and crippled beauty were also the casualties of war. Unique, sweeping, an unforgettable, THE KILLER ANGELS is a dramatic re-creation of the battleground for America's destiny.
Amazon.com Review:
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.
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Rated by buyers 
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I can only echo the applause of previous reviewers.
An excellent balance of fact and fiction, this book carefully builds up to the Civil War battle of Gettysburg and carries the reader through the action on both sides. Kept me up late many nights.
I note that this war novel is told exclusively from the perspective of the generals and colonels (as opposed to, say, Leon Uris' Battle Cry, told by the privates and sergeants). The map illustrations of the battle situations were of great help in enjoying the book. I read from a cheap mm paperback edition - I would recommend obtaining a hardcover or trade size paperback, so as to get more legible maps.
I think I detected a slight bent by Shaara in favor of the South (he seems sypathetic to their cause and admires their culture). Justified? . . . I'm not sure. But it does not present a problem either way.
Just a tremendous read and one that I highly recommend.
Rated by buyers -
If not the best it is certainly up there as one of the best books I have read this year (2008). It's been around for thirty years. It won the Pulitzer Prize - and yet I had not heard of it until it came up on the reading list of our Book Club. Thank goodness it did.
I'm sure most of us have been to Gettysburg, that nearly all of us can recite parts of the Gettysburg address from memory and that nearly all of us appreciate the historical significance of the battle; but this book put it all together for me; and it was emotional too. Written as a novel - and generally from the point of view of the Army of Northern Virginia - I was made to understand what the men on both sides went through as the battle developed, what their leaders were really like and the awful tragedy of the loss of life in this carnage of fellow Americans lined on different sides of Cemetery Ridge - actually lined on either side of what was a political and social divide - whether the Union could hold together and whether slavery could continue to exist.
Having visited Gettysburg twice and having been subjected to the lectures there each time it took this book to introduce me to the essence of the men who were there and what really happened. It's all too hard to summarize but I'm humbled by their fortitude and the patriotism of their officers. And I'm glad I read the book
Rated by buyers -
"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!!!
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
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 yesterday 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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