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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No Hero Worship, Just Heroes...., April 12, 2001
This review is from: Conceived In Liberty: William Oates, Joshua Chamberlain, and the American Civil War (Paperback)
One cannot gain an understanding of the American Civil War, (as well as the periods preceding it and following it), unless one eventually learns to see it through the eyes of the people who lived it. This book is presents the reader with just such an opportunity. The author follows the lives of two men from two completely different societies, through their youth, their adolescence and young adulthood, through the War and to the time where their paths cross in the battle on Little Round Top in July 1863, through the remainder of the war and its aftermath, right into old age. Each is affected by the society which surrounds him, each man embodies the best and the worst of those societies and each is motivated to fight in their defense. There's no hero worship here; each man is presented as being quite human. Yet, each man remains quite likeable in his own way. There's some surprises as well. Chamberlain was played by Jeff Daniels in the movie "Gettysburg". In that movie Chamberlain gives an impassioned speech to his troops about being "...an army out to set other men free..." The real Chamberlain wasn't a friend of slavery but he was no abolitionist either. Oates, for his part, (and much to my surpise), was one of the first officers to officially lobby the Confederate Congress for the enlistment of slaves early in 1863. (He was unsuccessful in his attempt). If I haven't given the book 5 stars it's because the author's writing style is a bit on the ponderous side. Nonetheless, this is the kind of book that you'll need to have in your library if your interest in the period is a serious one. Go experience it for yourself!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating and well researched, August 30, 2000
An excellent work by an author who obviously has a tremendous love and fascination for American history. The book starts slowly with the family histories of the two main characters - Chamberlain and Oates. He does an excellent job of introducing the reader to two completely different character with completely different backgrounds without taking sides or displaying predjudices. Chamberlain, the hard working, devout, formally educated New Englander projected against the self educated rambler from Alabama. He then shows how the paths these men take lead them both to that infamous day on Little Round Top. The author also does a good job of setting the stage so the reader understands how easily the course could have taken another direction - Longstreet's counter-march and delayed attack allowing the Union to reinforce the critical position and maintain control of the good ground setting the stage for the ill-fated Pickett's Charge. I think that the only area lacking in the book is the Post Civil War period in the South. While Perry spends time explaining the obvious differences between the Democrats and the reconstructionist Republicans, I do not think enough effort was given to Oates' wavering political positions and how he was influenced. All in all, one of the best works on a very demanding and focused subject.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Prime Example of What the Civil War Won for All of Us, December 28, 2001
This review is from: Conceived In Liberty: William Oates, Joshua Chamberlain, and the American Civil War (Paperback)
The Civil War was, in some ways, our own clash of cultures that ended up with us having a stronger, and more philisophically harmonic country than we had then. After the war we no longer were "Those United States" but "These United States". While it took longer (and still has not taken root) for some Southern areas to accept that they have changed because of the war, this book outlines in a fascinating fashion why the American Dream was won in 1865. Joshua Chamberlain and William Oates are both opposing personalities. Chamberlain was a professor, Oates a laborer. Chamberlain was a respected fellow before the war. Oates was much less.. even going into hiding at one point from the law. What they had in common was a belief that they had gone as far as they could in their lives before the war. Chamberlain was forever going to be a professor. Oates forever a laborer. Both faced each other in Gettysburg. While Chamberlain was the hero of Little Top in that battle, Oates eventually had a longer and more productive politcal life than Chamberlain. Neither of these men won their positions by birth, wealth, or by the inner workings of a political machine. They won their positions by hard work, and the admiration of their men in battle and the people they fought for. While it may have been possible prior to the Civil War for these men to have done so (Abraham Lincoln is a prime example) the fact is that the Southern philosophy was beaten in 1865, and the Northern philosophy of hard work, and position by trust and admiration rather than birth, and wealth won out and both sides reaped benefits and still are from that day.
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