The Making of Robert E. Lee - Softcover

Fellman, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801874114 ISBN 13: 9780801874116

Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr, 2003

Synopsis

With rigorous research and unprecedented insight into Robert E. Lee's personal and public lives, Michael Fellman here uncovers the intelligent, ambitious, and often troubled man behind the legend, exploring his life within the social, cultural, and political context of the nineteenth-century American South.

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Review:

In a study rich with discussions of Lee's religious beliefs and political opinions, the author skewers previous efforts to detach Lee from slavery, racism, and the Lost Cause. Sure to arouse debate, this book challenges and delights, and no one will come away from reading it thinking of Lee in quite the same way. Library Journal A brisk, thoughtful analysis of the character, temperament, and social philosophy of the Confederate general... Fellman proceeds in steady chronological fashion to create (with the help of many primary documents) a convincing portrait of Lee as a devout, teetotaling Christian (who was 'convinced that God rode with him'), an adherent to the 'timeless code of the gentleman,' a stern disciplinarian, a stoic who disdained personal comfort, a loyal husband and dedicated father who dispensed advice to spouse and offspring in prodigious amounts, a brilliant military strategist, and a racist slave-owner who 'never questioned his belief in the inferiority of blacks.'. Kirkus Reviews An analysis of the mind and character of Lee looking outward on his world... Well written, persuasive, and, in [its] marshaling of evidence, authoritative. -- Russell F. Weigley Journal of American History Thought provoking... [Offers] a glimpse of an inner Lee, perhaps a view of what was in his mind as we see him standing so straight in grey. -- Patricia A. Moore Kliatt Fellman has produced as thought-provoking an attack on Lee's character as [Thomas L.] Connelly ever wrote on Lee's generalship, and about as well researched. -- Richard B. McCaslin Virginia Magazine of History and Biography A valuable work for anyone interested in the Civil War. -- Albert A. Nofi New York Military Affairs Symposium Newsletter 2004

Synopsis:

With rigorous research and unprecedented insight into Robert E. Lee's personal and public lives, Michael Fellman here uncovers the intelligent, ambitious, and often troubled man behind the legend, exploring his life within the social, cultural, and political context of the nineteenth-century American South. "In a study rich with discussions of Lee's religious beliefs and political opinions, the author skewers previous efforts to detach Lee from slavery, racism, and the Lost Cause. Sure to arouse debate, this book challenges and delights, and no one will come away from reading it thinking of Lee in quite the same way."--Library Journal "A brisk, thoughtful analysis of the character, temperament, and social philosophy of the Confederate general ...Fellman proceeds in steady chronological fashion to create (with the help of many primary documents) a convincing portrait of Lee as a devout, teetotaling Christian (who was 'convinced that God rode with him'), an adherent to the 'timeless code of the gentleman,' a stern disciplinarian, a stoic who disdained personal comfort, a loyal husband and dedicated father who dispensed advice to spouse and offspring in prodigious amounts, a brilliant military strategist, and a racist slave-owner who 'never questioned his belief in the inferiority of blacks.

'"--Kirkus Reviews "An analysis of the mind and character of Lee looking outward on his world ...Well written, persuasive, and, in [its] marshaling of evidence, authoritative."--Russell F. Weigley, Journal of American History

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0801874114
• ISBN 13: 9780801874116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360