These Honored Dead: How The Story Of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory
In George Bernard Shaw'sDevil's Disciple, British general Burgoyne faces certain defeat at Saratoga. A subordinate asks him how history will view the event. History, Burgoyne states, "will tell lies, as usual." Desjardin is a historian and an archivist at Gettysburg. In this intriguing look at the reliability of many of the assumed truths about the Battle of Gettysburg, he does not accuse "history" or individuals of deliberate deceit. Rather, he convincingly asserts that the memories of battle participants, many of them recorded a decade later, are fragmentary and often contradictory. Faced with confusing recollections, historians often chose to select those accounts that satisfied their own preconceptions. As their accounts were written and repeated over decades, they received the aura of sanctified truth. For example, what really happened on the second day at Little Round Top? Did Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain really "save the Union" with an unorthodox charge? In dissecting various accounts, Desjardin skillfully illustrates how hazy memories of the fog of battle are gradually codified into accepted fact. An excellent addition to Civil War collections.Jay FreemanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.