This Civil War novel won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1974. The story centers on the Battle of Gettysburg and features a cast of real and fictional characters. The Killer Angels are the leaders of the opposing armies who lead their men in what they believed to be righteous causes.
The story begins on the last days of June 1863 as the Confederate Army moves from Maryland to the outskirts of Gettysburg. In a cyclical, chronological manner, Shaara reveals the thoughts, discussions, and actions of the major players, including Lee, Longstreet, Meade, Chamberlain, Reynolds, and Hancock. The author describes the three days of battle vividly. He highlights the initial contact on July 1st, Joshua Chamberlain's bayonet charge of the 2nd, and, of course, the glorious but domed Pickett's Charge of the third and final day.
This is history reported the way history should be taught. Shaara captures the intensity of the events and reflects the personality of the characters. He gives us a crusty old, Irish sergeant; a contemplative, brooding field officer; or a naive, raw recruit. In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of union, the other of a way of life.
Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Shattered futures, forgotten innocence, and crippled beauty were also the casualties of war.
The Killer Angels is unique, sweeping, unforgettable and dramatic re-creation of the battleground for America's destiny.
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Michael Shaara was born in 1928 in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Italian immigrants Michael graduated from Rutgers University.
In the early 1950's, he published a number of award-winning science-fiction short stories . He later began writing straight fiction, and published more than 70 short stories in such magazines. Two of his stories were produced as television dramas in the late 1950's. He taught creative writing and literature at Florida state University and was the author of The Herald and The Broken Place.
After a prolonged decline in his health, he suffered a fatal heart attack, on May 5, 1988.
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"The best and most realistic historical novel about war I have ever read."
--General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
"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 M. McPherson,
author of Battle Cry of Freedom
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
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