The Last Full Measure
by Jeff Shaara
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff ShaaraReader: Stephen Lang
Edition: Audio Cassette
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 1998-05-19
ISBN: 0375403094
Publisher: Random House Audio
Book Reviews of The Last Full Measure
Book Review: A Truly Grand Finale
Summary: 5 Stars
I had read both "The Killer Angels" and "Gods and Generals" when I started reading this. As such, I was expecting an excellent book and a grand finale to the Civil War. Jeff Shaara doesn't fail to deliver and "To the Last Fell Measure" is an excellent book. It primarily follows Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Joshua Chamberlain. Naturally, Shaara would go through the months after Gettysburg rather quickly because Grant's Overland Campaign is going to be the primary sourece of action. I'm glad he did and he gives excellent views of the overland campaign. I could actually feel the frustration that Grant felt at lost oppurtunities that he felt were constant and Lee's desperation to turn back the overwhelming Union tide. I love how you can experiance it all and I enjoyed the time span from the fall of Petersburg to the surrender of Lee's army. Both sides are desperate with Lee trying to get supplies and Grant trying to trap Lee's army. I was sad when the book ended, but I compensated for this by getting other books by Jeff Shaara. To sum it all up, if you loved the first two books, then you will have to buy this book to complete the trilogy.
Summary of The Last Full Measure
As Stephen Lang reads the final installment of Michael and Jeff Shaara's American Civil War trilogy, he conveys the horror and exhaustion that overwhelmed the battered soldiers by allowing a hauntingly weary quality to color his voice. The Last Full Measure picks up where the previous novels (The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals) left off, after the devastating Battle of Gettysburg, as the Confederate Army begins a long and fiercely contested retreat. The author writes, "As the war enters its third year the bloody reports continue to fill the newspapers and the bodies of young men continue to fill the cemeteries. To the eager patriots, the idealists and adventurers who had joined the fight in the beginning, there is a new reality, where honor and glory are becoming hollow words. The great causes are slowly pushed aside and men now fight with the grim determination to take this fight to its end." Lang puts his theatrical experience (Hamlet, Death of a Salesman, A Few Good Men) to good use here, delivering the narrative with sincerity. Although his effort is occasionally distracting, he creates a multitude of voices for the many historical characters, adding an element of emotional authenticity to this exceedingly powerful story. Once again Shaara uses an evocative blend of historical fact and well-researched fiction to create a powerful portrait of the men, great and small, whose actions determined the outcome of the war. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --George Laney4 cassettes / 6 hours
Read by Stephen Lang
Abridgment approved by the author
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.
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