Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
By Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen
You can view this book's Amazon detail page here.
This is one of Gringich and Forstchen’s “Active history” books. Active history is basically, taking liberties to create a story out of set of events based on the data and knowledge of the event that one has. In other words, making up a story but not drawing outside the lines of the known facts. The authors believe this makes history easier to consume and understand. This is certainly true, but it’s not clear where or if the facts end and the assumptive story takes over.
That said, this is my fourth “history” book by these authors and I keep coming back. There are certainly better American history writers, Halberstam, Ambrose, McCullough and even Jeff Shaara in this story-telling genre. But the fact that I keep coming back says something about how I feel, I suppose
This book is much better than the last Gringrich/Forstchen book I read, Valley Forge (http://bit.ly/jmjLSz). Gringrich didn’t use history in this book to beat up on Congress or the current administration. More importantly, I learned a lot and enjoyed the story.
If you’re a history or Civil War aficionado, this is most definitely not the book for you. If all you know about the Civil War is the name of a few battlefields, like me, you should find it a good read. That said, I wouldn’t move it to the top of your reading list.
Tags: History, Non-Fiction
- Started reading:
- 9th May 2011
- Finished reading:
- 26th May 2011