Pickett's Charge in History and Memory (Civil War America) |
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Pickett's Charge in History and Memory (Civil War America)
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by Carol Reardon
Sales Rank: 732741
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List Price: $34.95
$27.96
At Amazon
on 6-19-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 296 pages
Published by: The University of North Carolina Press November 15, 1997
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0807823791
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0807823798
Book Dimensions:
9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
Weighs: 1.3 pounds
Product Review
Pickett's Charge--the Confederates' desperate (and failed) attempt to break the Union lines on the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg--is best remembered as the turning point of the U.S. Civil War. But Penn State historian Carol Reardon reveals how hard it is to remember the past accurately, especially when an event such as this one so quickly slipped into myth. She writes, "From the time the battle smoke cleared, Pickett's Charge took on this chameleonlike aspect and, through a variety of carefully constructed nuances, adjusted superbly to satisfy the changing requirements of Northerners, Southerners, and, finally, the entire nation." With care and detail, Reardon's fascinating book teaches a lesson in the uses and misuses of history.
The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Whoever defined history as an agreed-upon lie was not acquainted with the aftermath of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Journalists could see no more than a fraction of the action, if they saw any at all. Participants saw even less. It took five days for definite word of Lee's defeat to reach Richmond (in bootlegged northern papers) and longer for it to travel south. Newspapers were filled with melodramatic babble, and battle survivors, when consulted, contradicted one another. Even the duration of the initial Confederate artillery attack remains in dispute; estimates range from minutes to hours. Such discrepancies are not, however, the real focus of Ms. Reardon's investigation. She looks at the mixture of local patriotism (Virginia), local resentment (North Carolina, et al.), Reconstruction politics, campaigns for reconciliation, and moonlight-and-magnolia fiction that eventually made Gettysburg the best-known battle of the Civil War and Pickett's Charge the heroic high point of the Rebel cause. Ms. Reardon's text is well supplied with anecdote and quotation and covers events as recent as a 1922 Marine Corps re-enactment of the action to see "What would have happened at Gettysburg if the armies of Meade and Lee had met with modern weapons and equipment?" The conclusion: Lee would have lost, but given air observation, he probably would not have launched an attack against "the entire Army of the Potomac." Quite apart from its notable historical interest, Ms. Reardon's work is a splendidly lively study of the manipulation, not necessarily deliberate or malign, of public opinion.
Reader Reviews
About 3 years ago, I read the 3 books Gary Gallagher edited that are essay collections on the battle of Gettysburg. While the books dealing with the first and second day had interesting material in them, the one on the third day had a truly interesting essay on Pickett's Charge, by a woman who's a military historian. I'm sure she's sick of hearing it, but female military historians are rather rare, so I read it with some interest. It was worth my time, definitely, and this book is an expansion of the themes presented in the essay. Gettysburg is a controversial subject, and while there has been much ink spilled adding to the controversy, this book instead aims to dissect the controversy surrounding the denoument of the whole event: Pickett's Charge. Reardon first covers the events of the charge very briefly, then wades right in and recounts the memory and history of the event as it developed over the years. There's a whole chapter, for instance, on the efforts of the North Carolina historical societies and veterans' organizations trying to rehabilitate the reputation of Tarheels who fought during Pickett's Charge, because they were blamed (by Virginians in Pickett's division and elsewhere) for the defeat. Watching the history of an event unfold and change as the generations pass is enthralling, and Reardon tells the story skillfully, keeping the pace up nicely and showing a formidable command of publications on the Battle and Pickett's Charge itself... All in all, a truly remarkable book and one well worth reading. A 9 is the highest rating I've given here; and I've rated ten or 15 books now.
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Pickett's Charge in History and Memory (Civil War America)
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Price: $27.96
Updated on 6-19-2008.
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