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By his own admission, this is the book that inspired Ken Burns to create the PBS documentary on the Civil War. That’s not this war novel’s only claim to fame, though—the Ted Turner movie, Gettysburg, was lifted nearly whole cloth from the book too.
Author Michael Shaara brings into sharp focus the three days of the bloodiest battle in American history. Shaara looks at the battle through the eyes of the principal leaders from both the Confederacy and the Union, constantly switching points of view between the leaders on the field. Every day is told, not by units and movements, but in the voice of the men that made the decisions. Through their words the reader sees what went right, what went wrong, and what was sheer luck.
Readers get drawn into the story from the opening lines and the sharp narrative never lets them go. The facts are almost one hundred percent dead on, which is pretty rare in historical fiction. Shaara has written an outstanding book—that strength lies in the fact that he never chooses one side over the other, which means the reader gets a fair and balanced look at the bloodiest week in the history of the nation. A definite must read, no matter what you think you know about the Civil War.
