Gods and Generals
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 Soft cover edition of Gods and Generals |
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| Author | Jeff Shaara |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | American Civil War |
| Genre(s) | Historical Fiction |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1988 |
Gods and Generals is a novel which serves as a prequel to Michael Shaara's 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning work about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. Written by Jeffrey Shaara after his father Michael's death in 1988, the novel relates events from 1858 through the start of the American Civil War, ending just as the two armies march toward Gettysburg. Since 1988, Jeff Sharaa has created "The Last Full Measure", the last book in this series about the war. Then, Jeff wrote another book, which is supposed to be the prequel to the entire series. In 2003 it was made into a film with the same name, which was directed by Ronald F. Maxwell and stars Robert Duvall and Jeff Daniels. The movie used the familiar mass of re-enactors and also a few faces from "Gettysburg".
[edit] Summary
Following his father's style of focusing on the most important officers of the two armies (General Robert Lee, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson, and Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain) Shaara wrote a war epic, detailing troop movements and strategies, combat situations, and the emotional turmoil of soldiers fighting old friends. General Hancock, for instance, spends much of the novel dreading the day he will have to fire on his friend in the Confederate Army, "Lo" Armistead. The novel also deals with General Lee's disillusionment with the Confederate bureaucracy and General Jackson's religious fervor. Both the book and the movie cover first Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancelorsville.
