In Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee, Michael Korda, the New York Times bestselling biographer of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, and T. E. Lawrence, has written the first major biography of Lee in nearly twenty years, bringing to life one of America’s greatest, most iconic heroes.Korda paints a vivid and admiring portrait of Lee as a general and a devoted family man … general and a devoted family man who, though he disliked slavery and was not in favor of secession, turned down command of the Union army in 1861 because he could not “draw his sword” against his own children, his neighbors, and his beloved Virginia. He was surely America’s preeminent military leader, as calm, dignified, and commanding a presence in defeat as he was in victory. Lee’s reputation has only grown in the 150 years since the Civil War, and Korda covers in groundbreaking detail all of Lee’s battles and traces the making of a great man’s undeniable reputation on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, positioning him finally as the symbolic martyr-hero of the Southern Cause.
Clouds of Glory features dozens of stunning illustrations, some never before seen, including eight pages of color, sixteen pages of black-and-white, and nearly fifty battle maps.
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This from my review for The Daily Beast:
It is this sort of [Stone Mountain] image—the bas-relief nobility of memorial sculpture—that Michael Korda chisels through in his massive and highly readable new one-volume biography: Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee. But, as Korda clearly recognizes, Lee himself could be almost as impenetrable as stone.
He was not cold. He was very loving with his wife and many children. He enjoyed flirting (harmlessly, it seems) with young women. He had the self-assurance of a Virginia aristocrat, albeit an impecunious one, and the bearing of a man born not only to be a soldier, but to command. He was tall for his time—at least 5’10”—and as a young man he was strikingly handsome, broad-shouldered, and Byronic.
But perhaps Lee’s most memorable feature, even in the worst of times, was his phenomenal self-control, whether in the face of triumphs or disasters. His belief in God’s will lent “a certain opaque quality” to Lee’s character, as Korda writes. Perhaps the general did not cultivate his fame as “The Marble Man,” but he earned it.
Lee was so much the model of a Virginia gentleman that he came to seem a hero not only of the Lost Cause in the South, but of a restored peace for the Union in the aftermath of the war. He believed in reason, good manners, and moderation in all things except battle, when his skill in defense and audacity in offense managed to keep the Confederacy’s hopes for independence alive years longer than would have—or should have—been the case.
And that is part of the problem. While the dream of the Confederacy was kept alive, the men on the battlefield on both sides perished by the tens of thousands. …
Good book. Places Lee’s actions in true perspective relative to his command style, his successses and his failures. The book also acknowledges that the war was fought to maintain the states’ rights to preserve slavery and Lee’s role in the lost cause mythology, even if he did not actively participate in the creation of that myth.
A lot of information presented in this book. Learned many things about a complex man that I didn’t know before. Gave me a new perspective of the civil war that I didn’t have before. I liked this book…..a good read.
Well written and obviously well researched.
With all the re-writing, ignoring, burying of our Civil War history it was interesting to read about the character of Robert E. Lee. He was clearly a brilliant man who had the interests of his State firmly at the foremost of his actions. His career as an engineer was new to me and helped to explain some of his actions as a leader in the war. The author could have made this a much tighter book…but then also a lot shorter…by not being so repetitive about the quirks of Lee and his family’s tendencies. That is primarily why I gave it a 3 star rating…after a while I was just plain annoyed at the repetition.
The book clearly depicted the horrors of war and the stupidity of the so-called leaders of the men who pay the biggest price. It is unimaginable that we sacrificed so many for basically political reasons….but then that is typically what any war is about isn’t it.
Wasn’t sure I would get through this book when I saw it was 1400+ pages, however, it was so interesting I went through it in 4 days. Never lost my interest as battle after battle was outlined. Not only was General Lee’s character well outlined, but the personalities of all the generals under him were woven into the battles, as well as the Union generals they were pitted against. You understand the limitations they had to overcome in communications and moving men and equipment in the 1860’s.
The book avoids spending much time talking about the time between battles which keeps you engaged and in the end, I felt like all the maneuvering and battle plans could have been over a period of four months instead of four years. Then you realize the real speed that war was waged at in the past….and with that, the incredible skill which Robert E. Lee demonstrated under overwelming odds.
I read this on my Kindle, so pictures were a tad hard to see, but I really appreciated the fact that at the end of the book there was a collection of pictures of all the main characters in the book. That really brought the historic part of this to the forefront.
The book was also politically neutral as all history books should be.
Very good book about a vey good man. If people of this time would read this book, there would be no demand to remove him from history.
Wonderful description of an underdog who took a newly formed and destitute “country”, with no military history, no long standing army, made up entirely of volunteers, no money. And came within a hairs breadth of defeating the most powerful nation at that time.
Very interesting.