Lee [Abridged] [Paperback]

Richard Harwell (Adapter), Douglas Southall Freeman (Author), James M. McPherson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

A Simon & Schuster eBook

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684829533
• ISBN-13: 978-0684829531
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( L ) > Lee, Robert E.
  • #43 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > Civil War > Military Leaders

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Work of Rare Genius, June 22, 2000

By 

Lewie Reece (Haskins, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lee (Paperback)

Such was the talent and ability of Douglas Freeman that a work which is now more than sixty-five years old still remains the best work written on Robert E. Lee. Time has made some of Freeman's work dated. In reading this condensed version of Freeman's four volume masterpiece, one will discover little about the social lives of soliders in the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate politics, or the role slaves played in the Confederacy. Yet what remains still has real value. Freeman's purpose was to write an engaging biography of Lee which would reveal every known fact and convey it in such a way that would be interesting. Yet the larger work is in many ways inaccessible to a general audience. The four volumes which have been compressed into this one volume lose little of Freeman's original thought. Pruned from Freeman's orgiinal are footnotes, bibliographies, and everything that is superflous. Yet the reader will find the single volume still a remarkable achievement, and that it conveys the heart of the argument. Freeman's main accomplishment is to be able to get inside the head of Robert E. Lee. It is very much a book which seeks to convey Lee's life, to show how he made critical decisions, and what were important qualities which contributed to his character. Freeman has little doubt as to Lee's greatness, who he considers to be a shining example of a model Christian gentleman. While Freeman is not an apologist of the Confederacy, always a committed nationalist, he recognized that Southern defeat was in many ways a blessing. Nevertheless, Freeman as a Virginian sought to honor those who suffered, bled, and died for the Confederate cause by examining the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Freeman was a gifted writer, and his writings on Lee have the feel of great literature, just as much as that of a important historical work. Freeman's main contention is that Lee's brilliant tactical and strategical insights were able to preserve and keep intact the Army of Northern Virginia. Without Lee's real skill the war would have in all likelihood ended much sooner. Even when Lee's efforts failed him, they came from a desire to move audaciously to allow the South to acheive it's independence. All of these qualities made Lee, in Freeman's view, a gifted military commander. Since _Lee_ was first published, numerous biographies have been written of the general, but none has done so well at capturing the man. Moreover, nearly all of the attempts are in one way or another heirs of Freeman's approach. For the student of the civil war or of Confederate history _Lee_ remains an indespensible book.

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Summit of American military biography..., October 10, 2003

By 

Commander Adama (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lee (Paperback)

Douglas Southall Freeman's multivolume "R.E. Lee" may have been published nearly three-quarters of a century ago, but this abridged version remains the best single biography ever written about the legendary Confederate general. Although there have been numerous books written about Lee, none have come as close to capturing Lee's military genius, or why so many Southerners enthusiastically fought and died under his banner, as does Freeman's work. When it was first published "Lee" was a sensation, and in the 1930's only Margaret Mitchell's wildly fictionalized "Gone With the Wind" surpassed it in sales and publicity. Senator Harry Truman read every volume, as did other famous political and military leaders. Freeman's work did much to spread the "Lee Legend" outside the South and made Lee into a national, and not merely regional, icon. Of course, Freeman has since been criticized, and in some ways justly so, for his overwhelming pro-Lee bias. In Freeman's elegant prose Robert Edward Lee is nearly perfect in every respect - he is a modest, deeply religious man who dislikes slavery and secession but reluctantly agrees to side with his native state of Virginia when the Civil War begins. If the rest of Freeman's story sounds familiar it is because this book made it so. Lee, despite facing constant shortages of men and supplies, meets the overwhelming forces of the Northern States and defeats them in battle after battle. Yet after each defeat the Northerners simply recruit new soldiers, resupply their vast armies, and come after Lee's valiant but shrinking forces again and again. In the end not even Lee's tactical genius can save the outnumbered and outgunned Confederates from eventual (and in Freeman's opinion, inevitable) defeat. Naturally, other historians have not always agreed with this view of the Old South's greatest icon, and later books on the "Gray Fox" have disputed Freeman's assertions that Lee was opposed to slavery and secession, or that his military decisions were always correct. For example, Freeman argues that the South lost the crucial Battle of Gettysburg largely because of the stubborness and jealously of Lee's second-in-command, General James Longstreet. Longstreet had opposed Lee's plan in June 1863 to try and crush the Northern Army of the Potomac by invading Pennsylvania and forcing the Yankees into a final, apocalyptic battle on their own turf. On the second day at Gettysburg Lee ordered Longstreet to have his men attack a small rocky hill, called Little Round Top, which offered a commanding view of the battlefield. Longstreet didn't want to attack such a well-defended position, and instead he tried to convince Lee to simply move around the Northern Army's flank and attack it from behind. According to Freeman, when Lee disagreed with Longstreet's suggestion and ordered him to attack the hill, a sullen Longstreet moved so slowly against Little Round Top that it gave the Yankees time to "dig in" and repulse his assault. However, more recent historians (as exemplified in Michael Shaara's famed novel, "The Killer Angels") have claimed that Longstreet was correct in his reluctance to attack Little Round Top, and that Lee should have taken Longstreet's advice. Yet no matter how disputed Lee's strategy or beliefs are in these "politically-correct" times, this book's elegant prose, flawless research, and passion for its subject shine through on every page. There may have been other books written about Robert E Lee, but none have done so well at potraying his life or in explaining why, even today, his tactics are studied at military academies and his legend continues to thrive in many parts of the South. A genuine "must-read" for any Civil War buff or student of military history.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellently written biography!, January 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Lee (Paperback)

I have not even yet finished reading "Lee," but I have enjoyed it so much that I would like to give my opinion of it. This is a very well-researched, thoughtfully written biography, by an author who was not only a good historian but also a good writer. Robert E. Lee's whole life is laid before us in very good order, and it is interesting to read about Lee's life during the years other than 1861-1865.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because Freeman does not glorify Lee, although it is evident that he has a high opinion of Lee. However, Freeman does not disappoint his readers by dwelling on Lee's weak points. He actually does point out his faults, but he does it objectively, and fairly, instead of pouncing on Lee and tearing him apart.

This is the perfect biography of Robert E. Lee to buy if you want to know just why Lee is such a great figure in American history. It is fair, thorough, and very well-written.