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Title: Shiloh : A Novel by Shelby Foote ISBN: 0-679-73542-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 April, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Book that Started It All....
Comment: Published in 1952, Shelby Foote's fourth novel, attracted minimal public attention, but the critics and individuals in publishing took notice. One of them was Bennett Cerf of Random House who then afforded Foote the oppurtunity to write a short, one volume history of the Civil War. The rest, as they say, is history.
Back to the novel. Shiloh is simple enough, a relatively short novel which is simply about what the title says, a story of the April 1862 battle which produced the first battle where the casualties equalled that of Waterloo, some 47 years earlier. Foote does what Michael Shaara would do in his Pulitzer Prize winning Killer Angels nearly 20 years later; view the battle with altering Union and Confederate viewpoints. The difference is that when Foote has a historical character speak (like Ulysses Grant or Nathan Bedford Forrest) it's the words they were definitely known to use at the battle. Nothing on the real life characters is made up. Not that Killer Angels comes up short. It's arguably the greatest Civil War novel ever written, but you can see the blueprint of it in Shiloh.
I enjoyed this novel very much. It got me to want to read the three volume narrative. I think that this is probably better than most historical accounts of Shiloh. It's certainly more entertaining.
Rating: 4
Summary: A detailed account of the battle of Shiloh-April 6-7, 1862.
Comment: Shelby Foote's non-fiction book about a great Civil War battle, Shiloh, is a gruesome story about death, battle, courage, and cowardice. Foote described the true parts of battle, but wasted much of the book describing each main character's life before the war. Foote, however, shows his knowledge of Civil War battle strategies and allows the reader to enter the Shiloh battlefield in which two huge lines of soldiers collided. My favorite parts of Foote's description of Shiloh--death, blood, battle, exhaustion, and fear--I still remember now. For example, I enjoyed reading when Foote described a man running, getting shot, and not stopping: "I saw one man come over . . . I saw the front of his coat jump where the shots came through . . . this man kept going for nearly fifty yards downhill" (p.79). Another gruesome part was when Foote described the surgeons in the medical room on the battlefield. The surgeons were drinking liquor to be drunk so that they could amputate the injured soldiers' shattered arms and legs. The pile of cut off arms and legs was up to the window. But the most horrifying part of the surgeries was the absence of anesthesia and antiseptics. Each hurt man would have to be held down as he experienced excruciating pain, but many passed out and later died of infection. Finally, I realized how much suffering two opposing forces can bring upon one country: dying soldiers, devastated country, and unbearable sadness. For example, Foote describes the mile-long lines of men from the South and North opposing each other. Each side would test the cannon's range, and, after a while, would be destroying huge groups of men and creating gaping holes in the earth. As a northern infantryman said as he watched the mini balls cut down his friends, "they died for nothing" (p.191). The front line would also shoot grapeshot that would burst into thousands of tiny pieces and destroy the other army's front line. All of Shiloh was about two sides of America fighting over slaver! y and secession. About 26, 000 men died without respect, a prayer, or a marked grave. Shiloh is a historically accurate book that would interest anyone who likes to read about the Civil War and wants to understand the pain and suffering our country went through on April 6-7, 1862.
Rating: 4
Summary: a very well-written, powerful war story
Comment: Shiloh is a gruesome tale of the hardships of war and the effect that war can have on individuals that are involved in it. The battle at Shiloh was, for some, just another battle, but for many it was their last. Shelby Foote does a fantastic job describing the scenes so that you can almost feel the heat from the lead whizzing past you. He does a wonderful job with disgusting details of the men that never returned home. I don't usually enjoy war novels because the ending is rather obvious, but for this single battle I was on the verge of flipping ahead just to find the outcome. I would recommend this book to anyone that wouldn't get grossed out by blood and death because Foote paints a clear picture with his fantastic detail. Again, if you usually don't like Civil War novels, you may find there is something about Shiloh that is different. It puts you on the battlefield, lets you feel both sides of the fighting and it is definitely worth checking out of the library!
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Title: Civil War Volume 1-3 Box Set by Shelby Foote ISBN: 0394749138 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 November, 1986 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
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Title: Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 by Shelby Foote ISBN: 0679601120 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 28 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Chickamauga : And Other Civil War Stories by SHELBY FOOTE ISBN: 0385311001 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The Beleaguered City : The Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863 by Shelby Foote ISBN: 0679601708 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 08 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ISBN: 1879664178 Publisher: Stan Clark Military Books Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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