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Title details for The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara - Available

The Last Full Measure

A Novel of the Civil War

#3 in series

by Jeff Shaara
Mark Bramhall
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
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In the Pulitzer prize-winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time, an enduring bestseller that has sold more than two million copies. In the bestselling Gods and Generals, Shaara's son, Jeff, brilliantly sustained his father's vision, telling the epic story of the events culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that brings to life the final two years of the Civil War.
As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between the politicians in Washington and the generals in the field yawns ever wider. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a decisive, hard-nosed leader. It is at this critical moment that Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in command—and turns the tide of war.
For Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg was an unspeakable disaster—compounded by the shattering loss of the fiery Stonewall Jackson two months before. Lee knows better than anyone that the South cannot survive a war of attrition. But with the total devotion of his generals—Longstreet, Hill, Stuart—and his unswerving faith in God, Lee is determined to fight to the bitter end.
Here too is Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor who emerged as the Union hero of Gettysburg—and who will rise to become one of the greatest figures of the Civil War.
Battle by staggering battle, Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Lee and Grant—complicated, heroic, deeply troubled men. From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing siege of Petersburg to Lee's epoch-making surrender at Appomattox, Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure.
Full of human passion and the spellbinding truth of history, The Last Full Measure is the fitting capstone to a magnificent literary trilogy.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Civil War Trilogy

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 9, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593295274
      • File size: 769336 KB
      • Duration: 26:42:46

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This conclusion to the Shaaras' Civil War trilogy begins as Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in command of the Union army. Shaara's exquisitely detailed account conveys a sense of impending tragedy, and Estell's newsreader style of delivery adds further to this. Estell's voice is clear, concise, well paced, and easy to listen to, while still capturing the weariness of the soldiers, officers, their wives, everyone. From the disaster at Gettysburg, to the costly Battle of the Wilderness, and finally Appomattox, listeners will hear and experience the dreadful toll war takes on the minds, hearts and, more obviously, the bodies of mere mortals. Civil war is surely any country's greatest tragedy. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 18, 1998
      Concluding the Civil War trilogy that began with his father Michael's Pulitzer-winning The Killer Angels, Shaara (Gods and Generals) chronicles Lee's retreat from Gettysburg and his valiant efforts to defend northern Virginia from Grant's superior, better-supplied forces. Seen alternately through the eyes of Lee, Grant and Maine abolitionist Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the narrative begins with the successful Union ambush at Bristoe Station in October 1863. It then details Lee's 18-month cat-and-mouse game as he outmaneuvers Grant, despite overwhelming odds and terrible deprivation, concludes with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Impressively researched, this deeply affecting work can't be faulted for inaccuracy or lack of detail. But the occasionally coarse grain of Shaara's characterizations is a problem. Haunted by Stonewall Jackson's ghost, 56-year-old Lee frequently appears to be a semisenile neurotic. Grant, more concerned about his supply of cigars than battle losses, comes across as a dolt. This tendency toward caricature notwithstanding, Shaara has produced a stirring epigraph to his father's remarkable novel. Major ad/promo; first serial to Civil War Times Illustrated; BOMC and QPB alternates; author tour.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The vision of Michael Shaara's trilogy about the Civil War is completed here by his son. After the Battle of Gettysburg, detailed in The Killer Angels, the generals on both sides still had many bloody battles to fight before the surrender at Appomattox. Following the style of the earlier volumes, the scenes alternate between the Northern and Southern camps, often recounting overlapping time periods. The abridgment has no ordering elements, such as chapter breaks, and it is occasionally unclear which side he's discussing. Stephen Lang presents a very grand view of the action and the characters. The intensity in his portrayal best suits the narrative when he's describing a battle. The subtle reflections of the characters are overshadowed as they are all swept up in the grandeur and pathos. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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