The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

by Michael Shaara (Author) "He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted..." (more)
Key Phrases: blue troops, scarred man, General Lee, Michael Shaara, Union Army (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
?The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read.?
?GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF

?My favorite historical novel . . . A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.?
?JAMES M. MCPHERSON
Author of Battle Cry of Freedom

?Remarkable . . . A book that changed my life . . . I had never visited Gettysburg, knew almost nothing about that battle before I read the book, but here it all came alive.?
?KEN BURNS
Filmmaker, The Civil War

?Shaara carries [the reader] swiftly and dramatically to a climax as exciting as if it were being heard for the first time.?
?The Seattle Times
-- Review

Review
“The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read.”
–GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF

“My favorite historical novel . . . A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.”
–JAMES M. MCPHERSON
Author of Battle Cry of Freedom

“Remarkable . . . A book that changed my life . . . I had never visited Gettysburg, knew almost nothing about that battle before I read the book, but here it all came alive.”
–KEN BURNS
Filmmaker, The Civil War

“Shaara carries [the reader] swiftly and dramatically to a climax as exciting as if it were being heard for the first time.”
–The Seattle Times


See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; 2004 Modern Library Ed edition (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679643249
• ISBN-13: 978-0679643241
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,960 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Battle of Gettysburg seen through the eyes of generals, February 20, 2005

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I am one of those people who first read Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels" after seeing the film "Gettysburg." Consequently the book's novel idea of telling the story of the Battle of Gettysburg by focusing on five key participants--General John Buford and Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain for the Union, along with Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet and Lewis Armistead for the Confederates--was not a new idea to me. Through the eyes of these five men the crucial points of the battle--preventing the Confederates from taking the high ground on July 1, stopping Hood's division from sweeping the Federal left flank on Little Round Top on July 2, and the high water mark of the Confederacy with Pickett's Charge on July 3--are crystallized as desperate actions agonized over by the leaders who have to make the crucial decisions. Even though these five men are battlefield commanders, they still manage to personalize the battle in which more Americans were killed than were lost in the entire Vietnam War.

Shaara's son Jeff has published a Civil War prequel and sequel to his father's book, but those volumes cover more than a single battle and the focus on a limited number of characters does not work as well. Still, I appreciate that the rest of Chamberlain's story is developed, since it is the college professor from Maine who emerges from both "The Killer Angels" and the Ken Burns PBS documentary on "The Civil War" as the idealized citizen-soldier of the war. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of both this novel and its film, are that they make the defense of Little Round Top by the 20th Maine the high point of the Battle of Gettysburg rather than Pickett's Charge, and that it is the name of Armistead rather than Pickett that we will not forget from that most famous charge. It also serves as a poignant reminder of what Buford did on the first day, before the big names and the rest of the two armies arrived at Gettysburg.

"The Killer Angels" deserves its reputation as the finest Civil War battle novel because it gives us more of a look at the psychology of these leaders than we can get from a history book. While Armistead did not really survive the battle and Buford would be dead by the end of the year, the other three lived long enough to leave behind their versions of what happened those fateful days in July 1863. Shaara goes along with Longstreet's view that Pickett's Charge was a mistake, but in terms of the book's narrative that logic gives way to the charisma of Lee's leadership, just as it did that fateful day. But that is valid since the great tragedy of the American Civil War is that the emotions that fueled the Southern Confederacy were ground down by the inevitable logic of the Union's advantages in terms of population, industry, and everything else. Even if the Army of Northern Virginia had won at Gettysburg it never could have taken Washington, Grant would have still come East to take command of the Union Armies, and all that would have changed was the time and place of Lee's inevitable surrender. What Shaara accomplishes in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel is to allow us to understand why the Rebel troops who marched towards the clump of trees at the Angle would have thought otherwise and believed it with all their hearts, minds and souls.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Classic Novel of Gettysburg, May 27, 2006

By	D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels" is well known to a couple of generations of American Army officers, for whom it has been required professional reading. It is also well known to many fans of the Civil War as the basis for the 1993 movie "Gettysburg." It may be, with Anton Myrer's "Once An Eagle", one of the best novels on the American way of war.

Sometimes fiction does a better job of explaining what happened than conventional history does. "The Killer Angels" may be proof of that truism. Shaara has suceeded in capturing the key events of the epic Battle of Gettysburg; he has also suceeded in humanizing some of the principal personalties. The reader can appreciate what Gettysburg must have been like for Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee and his stalwart Corps Commander James Longstreet, and for Union officers John Buford and Joshua Chamberlain. We see the unfolding battle through the eyes of these four individuals and a host of other leaders. Shaara was generally faithful to the historical record when he wrote in 1974; his story is fictional to the extent that we are privy to the unrecorded thoughts and feelings of the men around whom Shaara builds his narrative. We see these men as the human beings they were, not the semi-mythic historical personalties (or in some cases the forgotten men) they have become.

In a series of well-written vignettes, Shaara relates the story of the battle. In one, Union cavalry commander John Buford recognizes the key terrain at Gettysburg and holds it until the arrival of Union infantry. In another, Joshua Chamberlain defends the extreme left of the Union line in an action that will win him the Medal of Honor and enduring fame for the 20th Maine. Confederate General Lee struggles to reorient his army to fight an unexpected battle to which his absent cavalry commander did not alert him. In several vignettes, Confederate General Longstreet struggles against his military instincts as he carries out the orders of General Lee. Their efforts to make sense of the chaos of the battlefield, to lead their soldiers, make tough decisions and deal with their hopes and fears hold lessons for us in the present day. Shaara's prose is highly readable, authentic to the period, even page-turning.

This book is highly recommended to students of the Civil War and the military art. Readers without background in the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg may find the narrative somewhat challenging to follow.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern American literary masterpiece, July 22, 2006

By	John Washburn - See all my reviews

This is the best book I've ever read. Shaara brings to life the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, as well as the key players that collided those fateful days in July.

Exhilirating, heroic, tragic. The adjectives are endless and, in truth, it's impossible for me to accurately express how good this book is. If there is any interest in military or American history, or if you just enjoy reading masterful literature, then this book is a can't miss.

Thank you, Mr. Shaara, for this gift to American culture.