Customer Reviews

Robert E. Lee: A Biography

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Because I spent three summers at Arlington House as a National Park Service ranger, I've read a number of books about Robert E. Lee and his family, including Freeman's four volumes twice. Thomas's biography is well written and was especially helpful to me in sorting out aspects of Lee's pre-Civil War career that hadn't made sense to me before. Thomas' treatment of Lee's feckless father, Light Horse Harry, hits close to the mark, and I'm ready to accept Mrs. Lee as more small-minded than I would have credited ten years ago. Thomas is perhaps a bit tough on Lee's father-in-law, G.W.P. Custis, and I would have liked the author to spend more time with Lee's mother-in-law, Mary Fitzhugh Custis, whose influence on Lee and his family was enormous.

Thomas' attempt to read double-entendres into Lee's early pleasantries with younger women is at best strained and at worse anachronistic. Thomas also has an imperfect understanding of evangelical religion in the nineteenth century and seems to think if the low-church Episcopalian Lee didn't discuss a conversion experience, then his confirmation in the church at age 46 was little more than a formality "to support his daughters' conviction" and "to honor his mother-in-law's piety." Thomas' attempt to substitute "God" for "true gentleman" in one of Lee's ruminations about ethics and read into it an "intriguing theological insight" is downright silly. (p. 397)

One serious mistake needs to be corrected: the sensational charge that in June 1862, Lee was so preoccupied with his duties that he forgot his grandson had died and wrote to the boy's mother asking her to "kiss [him] for me." Thomas might have reflected on the improbability of this story and double-checked the primary sources. Actually, the boy died in July. It is a notorious example of information both true and sensational-but with the sensational untrue and the true not sensational.

Lee was not, of course, the myth that he started to become by the end of the Civil War, and Thomas is correct to emphasize Lee as a tragic hero. Nevertheless, Freeman's Lee, the uncomplicated man of duty is closer to the truth than Thomas' paradox striving "to be independent, to be free."

Thomas has written a thorough, well-researched albeit opinioned biography of Robert E. Lee that focuses more on the man than the battles. I gave it 4 stars because the entire book was engrossing--never a bit dull. He claims to be middle-of-the-road between the extreme views of Lee. I think he leans quite a bit toward the detractors. Much of his portrayal of the inner man is speculative, in my opinion. While he may well have gotten most of it right, I don't think Thomas has Lee "all figured out" as much as he seems to think he does. His is another opinion on the field of many such. That said, Thomas has delved into the details with extreme scrutiny. You can see that he really tries to be fair. I think maybe most of my disappointment is that I had hoped this book would make Lee less a mystery, and it did not, not for me anyway.

I do highly recommend this book, not only because it has excellent scholarship, but also because it's a pleasure to read--a most difficult combination!

I thought this was a personal biography of Robert E. Lee. I think some of the previous reviewers were looking for a military biography. But book talks more about Lee as a man instead of Lee as a military commander. On that, I found the book to be rather refreshing in outlook as the author intregated Lee's personal life into his military performances.

The author appears to be pretty sympathetic toward Lee, as a man with many problems at home before, during and after the Civil War. He writes with clarity and with empathy which helped the reader understand what sort of a man Lee was. While an analyical look, I found the book readable, enlightening and well presented.

Emory Thomas is ambitious but ultimately correct in proclaiming his compelling Lee biography a post-revisionist portrait. He attempts (with admirable success) to balance his respect for Lee's character and ability (without Douglas Freeman's blatant worship and apocryphal stories) with honest accounts of his faults and contradictions (minus the carping of Connelly's 'The Marble Man' and Nolan's 'Lee Considered'). In the process, Thomas has captured as much as any writer is able the humanness of Lee. I was struck throughout the book by events and words that mirror my own aspirations and failures. I think the highest praise I can offer Thomas's book is that this avid Lee fan and Civil War buff felt like he had met Robert E. Lee for the first time

This book is a terrific account of Robert E. Lee. It has an accurate account of the General's love for his native state/and his intolerance for the institution of slavery. It does portray some of the negative sides of lee however which allows for some criticizm. But my opinion is not yours so read it for yourself to get an opinion.

Professor Thomas has written a compelling and highly readable biography of an increasingly controversial figure. We are now told that to esteem the memory of General Lee is somehow to honor slavery and man's inhumanity to man. Professor Thomas provides us with a welcome antidote to this deconstructionist thinking. The author gives us a portrait of a man who was thoroughly human. Possessing great faults but also possessing real character. I would lay only two faults to the book; First, the author's rather tiresome attempts at psychoanalysis, attempting to explain Lee's entire life in terms of difficult personal relationships. Secondly , it is obvious that Professor Thomas is not a military historian and he gives only a general analysis of Lee's strategic vision and his military career generally. Also I found his criticism of James Longstreet to be just a little over the line. Nonetheless this is an excellent biography and I highly reccomend it.

This book was a very factual, steadily-flowing, concise 1-volume biography of General Lee's entire life. I had read reviews here that felt this book did not focus enough on Lee's Civil War battles, but I thought the author (Emory Thomas) focused as much as he could (in a 1-volume biography) on Lee's Civil War conflicts. Robert E. Lee was an amazing figure, and Thomas does a good job portraying him fairly; neither deifying Lee, nor demonizing him either.

Thomas has given us a post-revisionist portrait of Lee that addresses the general as a human being much better than it presents him as a brilliant military strategist. His complicated relationship with his rakish father, his sainted mother, his demanding wife, and his children are all central foci of the book; his relationships with those outside his family get relatively short shrift. It is amazing how little of this book deals with the actual history of Lee's Civil War battles; more attention seems to be given to his involvement in the Mexican War. Indeed, the book seems to give disproportionate attention to his life prior to the Civil War, with relatively lesser attention to what happened after he became commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia. Since the latter period is that in which he made his mark on history, this focus is rather disappointing. But Thomas does a relatively able job of dispelling the image of Lee as "the marble man," and for that, Civil War afficionados owe him a debt of gratitude.

Emory Thomas gives a southerners perspective on the life of Robert E. Lee. The preface of this book gives the reader a sense that they will be given a pro-southern view of the war and while that is true at times the biography is generally balanced well. Lee is portrayed as a hero which he was to the south and shown as a military genius which was mostly true. Lee accomplished amazing things by bold actions and the principles of movement and concentration. This book tracks his childhood where he lived in the shadow of a father who was a failure. It then moves to his years at West Point where he excelled and graduated at the top of his class. He was given several assignments across the country from building a fort in Savannah to defending the Mississippi near St. Louis. He even spent time in New York City rebuilding forts there before heading off to war in the 1848 Mexican American War. Lee served with distinction in the war and learned a great deal from Winfield Scott about fighting an offensive war with smaller numbers than the enemy. He would take these lessons to heart against the north.
Lee would refuse both the United States Army and the Confederacy when they offered him posts in their armies. It was only when his home state of Virginia left the union that he accepted command of all Virginia militias. As the militias were absorbed into the army Lee found himself without a command. Jefferson Davis would use Lee as a roving advisor helping to make overall strategic decisions, a sort of Halleck of the South initially. Lee would eventually take command of the army once Johnston was sent out to command the Army of Tennessee. This would be a post that Lee kept throughout the entire war. Lee was able to achieve stunning victories by daring action but in the end resources were against him. Lee correctly believed that his army had to achieve victory very quickly because a war of attrition favored the north. Unfortunately for Lee he was at times too bold and all of the battles are categorized well here. For a book written in 1995 there is a good deal of attention paid to the west which is now considered a vital battlefield. Lee was forced to surrender after a vicious battle near Appomattox courthouse where PA miners actually blew up a whole underneath his army. Lee won daring defensive victories but each time his army was smaller and his position more tenuous. After the war Lee accepted a post to become President of Washington College in Lexington. It was a post he would excel at. Lee would not become a citizen of the union until historians discovered his petition in 1975 when Congress made him a citizen again. This biography provides an excellent and balanced look at Robert E. Lee's life. I would highly recommend for Civil War scholars who want an updated biography and one that is not too biased in one direction.

This book is a biography of Lee the man, not an examination of one of our history's most notable generals.

The military side of Lee is, of course, a major part of Thomas's story. However, he has attempted to paint a charactor study of Robert E. Lee so that his deportment and decisions during the Civil War can be seen to flow from a man molded by tradition, duty, honor and the uniquely historic family from which he came.

This means that the book spends much time on Lee's pre Civil War life as well as time delving into his relationships with his family and others. The result is a readible book that gives the reader an entre into the man Robert E. Lee. Those looking for a military expose or exploration may be somewhat disappointed, but this is still a worthwhile book.