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| Gods and Generals | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeff Shaara
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $7.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (236 reviews)
Sales Rank: 43700
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 3.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0345422473
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345422477
ASIN: 0345422473
Publication Date: April 29, 1998
Release Date: April 29, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Book - Gods and Generals April 18, 2008
Jeff Shaara's book brings much more historical accuracy to life in the easy to read and easy to follow book. It is known that Jeff Shaara's father wrote "The Killer Angels" the bases for the Movie Gettysburg --
Mr. Jeff Shaara, not a professional writer, used his father's 'example' in telling the story of pre determined characters--mostly, the little known and or little recognized characters and presents them in a manner to bring more to light then so many previous books. Though a 'novel,' in reading Official Records of the Rebellion, Mr. Shaara's book is not for want of correction--he really is using factual resources and then adds the characters in a life like manner.
I bought the book after I saw the movie--and, the book brings many things to the front which the Movie "Gods and Generals" had difficulty in expressing due to time/length of the DVD. I think it should have been a series, as to permit a better digestion of the intense amount of information through the DVD movie -- However, Robert Duvall as General Robert E. Lee is none better --as, he really is a relative of General Lee and scary how close his face represents the death mask of General Lee.
I recommend both the book and the movie.
 Very Disappointed January 25, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Usually I restrict myself to non-fiction regarding historical events, since the traditional sources of historical knowledge themselves often contain a fair amount of fiction. But alas, this book was recommended by an associate of mine as a great book on the civil war, and of course the author's father is highly regarded. So I read it.
What a mistake. I must admit I was unimpressed by this book. The characters were lifeless and uninteresting. In fact they appeared cut from the same cloth, and, as opposed to some other glowing reviews, were simplistic and lacking depth. Throughout the reading I kept thinking 'Lee wouldn't act this way' or 'Hancock would NEVER have said this' et cet. The fictional thoughts and statements of these actual historical people are ludicrous in many instances. I think it a disservice to them, and to American history, to accept these characterizations as somehow 'realistic'-- students may confuse this nonsense with real history. In particular Shaara has made 'Stonewall' Jackson into a rather saintly figure when in fact he may have been severely mentally ill.
Go read a history book, or a biography (or better yet an 'autobiography'!) if you want to find out what these people did and what they thought. You will have a clearer understanding.
As a final note: I have been a Civil War 'buff' all my life and I have a Master's degree in U.S. History. Believe me, reading Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton would be a far greater use of your time, both for knowledge and entertainment. This book was very disappointing.
Love It!!!! January 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Loved the book from front to back. I know some people poopoo some of the historical accuracy, but that is why it is called historical fiction folks. Very entertaining. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about historical figures, but can't quite stomach a non-fiction book.
I read the Shaara Father Son series backwards and was impressed October 20, 2007
I just picked this book up at random at a book sale with Killer Angels and started reading it and I couldn't put it down. I'm not a Civil War buff but I did see the movie, Gettysburg, based on the book Killer Angels and watched the Ken Burns civil war documentary. This novel brought some of the most famous civil war generals to life and gave them a human perspective. Names we see at the post office or vaguely remember from high school history class. It creates the mood of a nation in horrible strife through the convergent paths of four individuals who became the military leaders in a horrible war. It paints the different Generals thoughts and the four different points of view drive the narrative.
I liked his depiction of Robert E. Lee with his pragmatic thought processes and his deep morality. This famous general was portrayed as a lonely man, a stranger to his family, who as a career soldier was driven by his duty but torn by his loyalties. Although the battle sequences all seem similar with the armies dug in and unable to run each other over, they bring to life some of the utter confusion, panic , horror of modern warfare. The novel does justice to Lee's military genius as he outmaneuvers the powerful Union Army which outnumbers him 3 to 1.
There is a deeply humanistic aspect to the characterizations of the various generals-Shaara does a good job breathing life into them. Toward the end of the book I was almost moved to tears as Stonewall Jackson dies after receiving wounds on the battlefield at Chancerllorsville. His dying vision is that of his happy young mother,who died in the pious and scholarly general's youth, calling out to him in the field hospital, saying, " Let us cross over the river, and rest beneath the shade of the trees."
A dying vision for a terrible war. Jeff Shaara does justice to the horrors of the Civil War. This was the beginning of modern warfare and was amongst the bloodiest conflicts in human history. There was a terrible toll taken to unify this nation and free the slaves which most of us forget. To some extent I thought the book didn't completely do justice to describing the complexities of the events that drove this nation to war. At the same time the author works with a starkly minimalist prose that is at often times beautiful in describing the landscapes-both physical and mental of the Civil War and four of its main participants.
The book seems to gloss over what the war was really about -slavery and emancipation, but at the same time the men aren't cast as heroes or villains. Only men who bound by there circumstances and their loyalties. The Union Generals McClelland, Pope, and Hooker appear only as buffoons, fodder for Jackson and Lee who are talented leaders and battlefield tacticians. Chamberlain and Hancock rise through the Union ranks and are outsiders to the leadership. Chamberlain a man driven by honor to abandon his family and teaching job to go to war and Hancock the career military man, often at odds with his leadership. For four lonely men, a sense of helplessness prevails and divine providence and destiny are central to each of the four main characters thought processes. Four divergent yet convergent lives drawn together in a conflict where the nation took arms and men marched off to die with little training. A war where men shot their brothers. It gave me a new perspective on the conflict as only a good psycho-history could.
As this book depicts the events leading up to the confederate invasion of Pennsylvania and the subsequent battle of Gettysburg I think I read the books in the right order. Luckily I bought them both together. I am now delving into Killer Angels and this was great background although chronologically they were written in the other order:2000 and 1974 respectively.
How did we ever............ September 1, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
.....get into such a mess? Actually, that question is approached [not answered; it will never be answered] elsewhere. The Civil War was NOT the fault of the Generals. In Jeff Shaara's prequel to his Dad's "The Killer Angels", the story is, once again, told from the viewpoint of leaders from each side...these men did not want war, and none of them wanted to see the Union broken. All were men of the same time, but of a different place....that was the problem. Winfield Scott Hancock had real feelings of friendship for Lewis Armistead. Robert E. Lee's decision to follow Virginia was not made lightly [and had the Virginia Secession Convention voted to stay in the Union, the war would have been totally different, with Lee leading the North with a clear conscience].
This history of the Civil War up to Chancellorsville is essentially accurate. It isn't "Lee's Lieutenants", but Mr. Shaara has never claimed to be Dr. Freeman. Lee and Hancock were career Army men who had seen promotion pass them by, stuck in a system where leaders were usually in place for life...Chamberlain did his duty, which always seemed to push him center stage...Stonewall Jackson was a misfit with one supreme talent; he knew how to fight...Longstreet was a genius far ahead of his time; the first twentieth century general, fighting the last eighteenth century war. [Bragg and Beauregard were twentieth century officers, too, but they aren't in the book]. McClellan was certainly not the idiot that history has painted him, but Pope and Hooker were. JEB Stuart had flash and style, and he knew how to lead...Hood and Pickett were as different as two men could ever be, but both were fine Generals.
As I said, this is not profound academic history; it's a novel. Still, it's accurate...I don't think I found any real errors of fact. Mr. Sharra has given us realistic portraits of Armistead and Hancock's differing views of duty, Chamberlain's clear-sighted patriotism, Longstreet's frustration, Lee's agony, Jackson's ???...Stonewall was a devout Christian, and a great fighter; my fellow Confederates consider me a heretic for my opinion of Jackson's mental stability, but I stand by it. Maybe the South would have won had Stonewall lived....but, see my review of "The Killer Angels". The cameos of Albert Sidney Johnston and Winfield Scott are certainly true to life.
If you want deep study, go elsewhere; the supply of good, bad, and indifferent books on our Civil War is endless. Look at my other reviews, and you will find books of interest to only a few people on earth. This fine novel is for the other 99.99999% of the population...if you want a good, honest, well-written, basic overview, start right here.
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