Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Question About It...THE Biography of Lee For All Time..., November 29, 2002
The story is well told how Douglas Southall Freeman went on to write this four volume magnum opus. Born in 1886, the son of Confederate veteran Walker Burford Freeman, young Douglas grew up in the sunny remembrances of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. He received his Ph.D in history at the tender age of 22 and earned an early reputation as a Confederae scholar with Calendar of Confederate Papers. Then followed Lee's Dispatches, which he edited. He wrote an introduction to Lee's Dispatches that was so brilliant, Scribner's signed him on to write a biography of Lee. Freeman believed he could complete the job in two years.20 years later, he was finished. In that time, America fought in a world war, women won the right to vote, and the original editor who signed Freeman on died and left the legendary Maxwell Perkins in charge.
All through it, Freeman labored on the biography like a demon. He discovered early on that most of the major sources were either never consulted or only skimmed over. He searched far and wide. He carried on a schedule that would have killed a lesser man. He awoke at 2:30 every morning, put a full day in at the Richmond Newspaper where he was an editor at, delivered two radio addresses each day, then back home to work on the biography. After twenty years and four massive volumes, he was done. Unanimous praise was heaped on his book and rightly so. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1935. It was and still remains the most thorough biography of Lee ever done and will probably never be surpassed. Readers looking for a book that will take R. E. Lee to task will be disappointed. Freeman is an unabashed admirer of Lee. Longstreet admirers will find Freeman's highly critical remarks of him in volume 3 during the Gettysburg Campaign aggravating. Freeman's Lee is a great man. Plus, why spend 20 years of your life reading and writing about a man you loathe? I never believed Lee was the saint certain Confederate veterans painted him to be. He was a human being and he had his share of flaws. But he was a good man who did what he thought was right and a great general. Freeman's research is awesome and his writing style (which Shelby Foote once described as a sort of "jog trot prose") while dated in some aspects (Freeman loves to use "whither" and "tither" whereas "where" and "there" would have been better), and the Freeman's overly critical treatment of Longstreet not withstanding, it is still an awesome book. Lee's campaigns are exhaustively detailed, and the maps are profuse and always keep the reader informed as to what the Army of Northern Virginia was doing at any given time. I would strongly recommend readers use Ezra Warner's "Generals in Gray" in conjunction with this work. I did and when Freeman parades the various personalities of the Army of Northern Virgina in front of the reader, the names can be confusing. Warner's book will give you illustrations of the men of Lee's command, and you will glad you got it. The book will come alive which is the purpose of all biographies. Lastly, Thomas Connelly's "The Marble Man" will give the reader a good counterbalance to Freeman. Still even Connelly admitted to someone once that "R. E. Lee" was still "the greatest biography ever written." I have to agree. At four volumes, I didn't want to stop. Give Freeman a chance, you'll be glad you did. One last note. You might also wish to start with "Lee" a one volume abridgement. Freeman's understudy, Richard Harwell did a painstaking abridgement and it is a wonderful one volume work. Of course, the superb maps that went with the 4 volume set are gone and replaced by more general maps, still it's a good bet in case 4 volumes are too daunting.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS WORK HIGHLY ENOUGH, July 22, 2006
As anther reviewer stated, this is by far the best biography of R.E. Lee. Still, after all these years, no one has been able to top it. The four volumes cover the life and career of Robert E. Lee and do it in a manner that you simply do not want to stop. I enjoyed each and ever page of each volume. Freeman's research is almost beyond question and of course he had the advantage of being much closer to Lee (time wise) that other, more recent biographers. Freeman's style is extremely readable, particularly when you consider the era in which it was written. Yes, the four volumes are a bit intimidating when you look at them on the shelf, but is is quiet surprising how fast they read and how much important, interesting and useful information the author has packed into them. Strange as it may sound, these volumes are real page turners. Anyone interested in the Civil War and R.E. Lee in particular should indeed read this work. I highly recommend.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Twenty-two hundred pages fly by before you know it, October 11, 2008
I am not familiar with the one-volume abridgement of this magisterial biography, but having read all four volumes I would be hard pressed to identify any area to be omitted in order to shorten this narrative.
The four volumes cover the following:
I. Family history, Light Horse Harry and birth through western Virginia campaign and Atlantic coast at the beginning of the war.
II. Assignment to Richmond, and Peninsula campaign through Chancellorsville.
III. Gettysburg, Overland campaign, Petersburg and loss of the railroads.
IV. Collapse of Petersburg lines, Appomattox, life in Lexington, and death.
Through his proximity in time and space to Lee, Freeman was able to gather a wealth of primary sources, such as letters and journals that were in the private hands of different families, and use them to flesh out the narrative of better known sources. It is unlikely that a more comprehensive account of Lee will ever be accomplished, regardless of what sources pop up or academic trends arise.
Freeman deftly employs the "fog of war" narration technique throughout the battle sequences. In other words, the narrative, instead of being omniscient, is told from Lee's perspective, and details of enemy movements and other developments are revealed to the reader only when Lee himself becomes aware of them.
The most common objection to Freeman's Lee is that it is hagiographic. It may be, but it would be impossible for a biographer to complete a work of this scope unless he actually admired his subject. Freeman is not without criticism of Lee, especially in the area of being too sensitive with the feelings of subordinates, for example, Loring in western Virginia and Longstreet at Second Manassas and Gettysburg.
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