Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign (UNABRIDGED) [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Shelby Foote (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 1994

Historian/novelist Foote's masterly work has been culled from his critically acclaimed three-volume narrative of the Civil War. 3 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Shelby Foote, who cut such a courtly figure in Ken Burns's PBS series The Civil War, is an uncommonly graceful writer as well, and this careful study of the 1863 Gettysburg campaign assumes the contours of a classical tragedy. Foote positions readers on the field of battle itself, among swirling smoke and clattering grapeshot, and invites us to feel for ourselves its hellishness: "men on both sides were hollering as they milled about and fired, some cursing, others praying ... not a commingling of shouts and yells but rather like a vast mournful roar." Foote's fine book is history as literature, and a welcome addition to any Civil War buff's library. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

Historian/novelist Foote's masterly work has been culled from his critically acclaimed three-volume narrative of the Civil War. 3 cassettes.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group; Unabridged edition (October 25, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679434666
• ISBN-13: 978-0679434665
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Books on Cassette > History > General

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect companion book to "Killer Angels", July 4, 2000

By 

Ned K. Wynn "EKW" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)

The first Civil War book I ever read (not counting Stephen Crane's "Red Badge Of Courage" which I read back in the 10th grade), was Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels," an excellent book, moving and informative though somewhat discursive and lacking in as much battle detail as the reader may ultimately desire to know. That was by design as Shaara was seeking to show us the interior lives of the officers who fought at Gettysburg. In this sense "Killer Angels" is more like a novel than a history. "Stars In Their Courses" is a much more richly detailed - and not novelistic (though certainly not lacking in drama) - book, a book whose historical context is more fully exposed: each of the terrible interlocking events of those three days is exploded on the page so that we get a fuller appreciation of the totality of that battle, the "high-water mark of the Confederacy."

I encourage anyone who is interested in furthering their understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg, or of simply reading a great book about the turning point in America's most devastating war, to read this book. And make sure, while you're at it, to also read "Killer Angels." Side by side these book give a fascinating view of three bloody days in the fields and woods of Pennsylvania.

As an addendum, I would like to say that, while this book is more straightforward and less like a novel than KA, it is during the reading of Pickett's Charge from this book that both my wife and I broke down in tears.

EKW

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, concise narrative on the Civil War's biggest battle, June 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)

Mr. Foote is something of a folk hero to people who love reading civil war history. Read this, the central chapter of his magnificent three volume narrative, and you'll understand why. In one modestly sized book, Shelby Foote explains more of how and what happened during the three-day battle than many books five times its size. There are scores of books detailing the first day of the battle alone, but this little gem will tell the reader all he or she really needs to know about Gettsburg without going into every tiny detail about who commanded this or that regiment, or where every infantry company was stationed. Typical of Foote's writing, it is not florrid or long winded, it simply takes you where you want to go. A must read

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Account of the Gettysburg Campaign, February 5, 2005

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)

Shelby Foote's monumental, three volume history of the American Civil War is widely recognized as one of the great works of the twentieth century. However, its great length - roughly three thousand pages - is undoubtedly intimidating to many readers. Fortunately, this 1994 Modern Library edition, Stars in Their Courses, the Gettysburg Campaign, circumvents this difficulty.

Stars in Their Courses is the middle chapter in the middle volume of Shelby Foote's remarkable history. This extract offers an easy way for a reader new to Shelby Foote to become acquainted with his masterpiece.

The editors of the Modern Library series should be commended for selecting this particular chapter. It is hard to imagine a better introduction to the Gettysburg Campaign. Stars in Their Courses is not only great history, it is great literature. Shelby Foote is an outstanding writer, one that happens, fortunately for us, to write history. In reviewing Foote's acclaimed historical narrative, one critic said, "It seems to me unlikely that it ever will be superseded."

Remarkably, Stars in Their Courses is entirely self-contained. A reader not familiar with Shelby Foote's writing would not realize that this Modern Library edition was actually a single chapter drawn from a much larger work. The reader has no need to reference any other sources.

Stars in Their Courses would make an excellent gift for that friend or family member that enjoys good literature, but heretofore has not developed an enthusiasm for the Civil War. The Modern Library edition is attractively bound, and printed on acid-free paper.

Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Killer Angels, would be a great companion gift to Stars in Their Courses. Shaara's focus is on specific participants in the three-day battle, especially Lee, Buford, Longstreet, Chamberlain, and Armistead. The Killer Angels was the basis for the epic movie, Gettysburg.