Book Reviews
This is no antiquarian, distant book. When the 20th Maine countercharges at Little Round Top, when Pickett's men breach the Union line at Cemetary Ridge, Shaara has a sentient observe there to register the terror and the bravery, the precarious balance of machine and man thast made Gettysburg one of the last human battles.... Always there is the fileter of intelligent personality and the attendant minutia that give the immense motions of intellect and men their reality.
Thomas LeClair - New York Times (10/20/1974)
Shaara carries [the reader] swiftly and dramatically to a climax as exciting as if it were being heard for the first time.
Seattle Times
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 C. McPherson – Author, Battle Cry of Freedom
The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
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)