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The "remarkable" (Ken Burns), "utterly absorbing" (Forbes) Civil War classic that inspired the film Gettysburg, with more than three million copies in print.
In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, 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. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America's destiny.
1. THE SPY
He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted. He crawled upward on his belly over cool rocks out into the sunlight, and suddenly he was in the open and he could see for miles, and there was the whole vast army below him, filling the valley like a smoking river. It came out of a blue rainstorm in the east and overflowed the narrow valley road, coiling along a stream, narrowing and choking at a white bridge, fading out into the yellowish dust of June but still visible on the farther road beyond the blue hills, spiked with flags and guidons like a great chopped bristly snake, the snake ending headless in a blue wall of summer rain.
The spy tucked himself behind a boulder and began counting flags. Must be twenty thousand men, visible all at once. Two whole Union Corps. He could make out the familiar black hats of the Iron Brigade, troops belonging to John Reynold's First Corps. He looked at his watch, noted the time. They were coming very fast. The Army of the Potomac had ...
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (7/16/2026)
...rowse has an issue coming up that'll focus on summer. Reviewers could pick any book they wanted, as long as it had some sort of summer focus. I chose The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, which features the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place July 1-3, 1863. It's a Pulitzer winner, so I expected it to be good, but WOW. I don't find...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (7/9/2026)
..., however. It was better than most. I just started https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/26641/the-killer-angels The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Jeff Shaara's father). The book won the Pulitzer for fiction, but it received zero recognition until Ken Burns made it into a miniseries ( Gettysbur...
-kim.kovacs
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
