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Shiloh: A Novel
written by Shelby Foote
Studio : Vintage
by Vintage
Release Date : 1991-04-09
Publisher : Vintage
Released : 1991-04-09
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780679735427
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 30 reviews)
List Price : $13.95
Our Price : $5.59
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Americancivilwar.com |
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In the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby Foote delivers a spare, unflinching account of the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over the course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops' movements through the woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the reader a broad perspective of the battle and a detailed view of the issues behind it. The battle becomes tangible as Foote interweaves the observations of Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and cowards and describes the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke. The author's vivid storytelling creates a rich chronicle of a pivotal battle in American history. |
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Product Description |
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This fictional re-creation of the battle of Shiloh in April 1862 fulfills the standard set by his monumental history, conveying both the bloody choreography of two armies and the movements of the combatants' hearts and minds. |
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Excellent historical novel |
Shelby Foote's closely fact-based novel Shiloh offers what I have long searched for--unromanticized historical fiction. Beginning the day of the battle and ending the day after, Shiloh brings the reader into the thick of the action.
Shiloh is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter is narrated by a different character--and one chapter by the individual members of a twelve-man squad--skipping back and forth between the Union and Confederate sides. Narrators as diverse as an aide to Confederate General A.S. Johnston, a Mississippi farmboy, a Minnesotan deserter, and an Ohioan officer all contribute to this novel's grunt's-eye view of the battle, and the subtly interconnected perspectives combine, in the end, to give the reader a panoramic view of what this battle meant to the men who fought it.
Shiloh is not just a book on battle, however. Through his narrators' thoughts, Foote points out the differing motives and ideals of the two sides--the differing attitudes among Northern troops and the perhaps fatal devotion to honor of the Confederates. Shiloh is a fast read--I read it in an afternoon and an evening--but by no means shallow. This is a beautifully-written, thoughtful, and moving novel.
Highly recommended. |
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Battle of Shiloh |
The Battle of Shiloh was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought on April 6 and April 7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and came very close to defeating his army. This battle was also fought by other celebrity generals such as William T. Sherman and Nathan Bedford Forrest (OK, so he was a colonel, but who's splitting hairs here)
Shelby Foote's short novel really tells the story through many of the junior officers and enlisted. So do not be expecting a Michael Shaara type of insight into top leaders mind set. This is strictly what it is like at the bottom and experiencing the chaos of war. I rather enjoyed it, though sometimes for as short as it was, it still felt a tad long. That, however, was few and far between. By far my favorite scene was when one of the soldiers watched Col. Forrest get wounded among the sea of grey coats. Mainly of interest to Civil War buffs, but they will enjoy it immensely. |
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A Civil War Classic |
Shelby Foote's Shiloh is a Civil War Classic. It is one of the absolute best novels of the American Civil War. Mr. Foote is able to capture not only the sense of the battle, but the spirit of the soldiers who fought there as well. It is not a detailed analysis of troop movements or tactics, but rather a study of the human condition and how it deals with the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of the soldiers. According to Mr. Foote, "A book about war, to be read by men, ought to tell what each of ..... us saw in our own little corner. Then it would be the way it was-not to God but to us." BUT TO US. And that is exactly how Mr. Shelby Foote wrote this book. As you read you will see, smell, taste, hear, and feel what the soldiers did, and experience both their glory and shame. A masterpiece.
No gratuitious language, sex or violence. Some of the battle scenes are graphic but that is war in all its uglyness.
Very highly recommended for anyone interested in war and soldiers; especially the Civil War. It is simply a very good book and a must for anyone interested in or studying the American Civil War. |
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In Fact or Fiction Foote Understands War Stories |
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Foote structures this novel brilliantly. Each narrator describes a different aspect of the battle, thereby providing readers with sense of what various soldiers' duties were during the engagement and how they responded to combat. The book also unfolds chronologically, so Foote provides us with the key strategy and major tactics used in the battle as well as the major points of conflict, including Shiloh Church, the Peach Orchard, The Hornet's Nest and the Fallen Timbers. It was especially interesting how he sometimes omits, or only vaguely references, other landmark events, such as the pounding of Union forces from Ruggles' Battery and the poignancy of Bloody Pond as a hellish haven in the battle. Maybe the 21st Century emphasis on these two icons of Shiloh is part of a contemporary way of thinking about the battle that wasn't as key to Foote's 1950s consciousness. Perhaps Foote effectively avoids being specific about some of these icons to make the point that ways we perceive the site are not necessarily how Civil War soldiers actually thought about the fracas. Another very subtle but effective technique that Foote uses is to interconnect each section told by the various narrators. We discover what happened to Fountain, for example, by reading another narrator's chapter, and attentive readers will discover clever ways that various narrators and characters encounter each other in the various accounts. Throughout the book, Foote's storytelling is superb. This novel mirrors the way veterans tell stories to each other. Part of the reason why veterans tell stories to each other relates to their interest in using other soldiers' accounts to come up with a better understanding of the entire experience. In this way, the line between storyteller and historian is blurred, and Foote, as a WW II veteran and fine writer, is a master at this creative, yet accurate and honest, approach to thinking about history. |
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The fog of war |
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Shelby Foote is best known for his authoritative 3 volume history of Civil War, but readers may not realize that he was equally adept at penning historical fiction. In Shiloh, he tells the story of the battle which took place April 6-7 1862 through the eyes of six participants, equally split between union and confederate. The novel builds slowly, but by the time you reach the crescendo of the battle, Foote's prose becomes so hauntingly descriptive and detailed that you feel as if you are there, and the rest of the novel flies by in a page-turning blur. At first I didn't think I was going to like the structure of the novel, because the 6 perspectives are only very loosely tied together with no transition in between, but after I read awhile I realized that the author used this particular story-telling device as a way to try to communicate a sense of the fog of war to the reader. You see events from the ground level, just as the characters do, and it's not until you finish the novel that you begin to get a complete picture of the battle. One of the narrators sums up this approach to history by commenting that "books about war were written to be read by God Almighty, because no one but God ever saw it that way. A book about war, to be read by men, ought to tell what each of the twelve of us saw in our own little corner. Then it would be the way it was - not to God but to us." Foote uses this technique with great effect, making this novel grippingly readable. While it's not the best Civil War novel I've read, it's certainly in the top 5. Shiloh is a must for Civil War buffs and Shelby Foote fans alike. |
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