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The Making of Robert E. Lee
With rigorous research and unprecedented insight into Robert E. Lee's personal and public lives, Michael Fellman here uncovers the intelligent, ambitious, and often troubled man behind the legend, exploring his life within the social, cultural, and political context of the nineteenth-century American South.
384 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 25, 2023
This book is really great. Fellman uses Robert E. Lee's letters and other writings to prove that he was (a) racist, so you can forget all those heartwarming stories about Lee being anything other than a bigot (b) kind of a jerk, honestly, and (c) not all that great a general. Fellman analyzes Lee's whole career, putting what Fellman calls the annus mirabilis in context, and it shows very clearly that the usual Robert E. Lee was NOT audacious, NOT a risk taker, NOT aggressive. Fellman spends a lot of time talking about the ideal of manhood that Lee was attempting to live up to, both Stoic and Christian, so lots of repression and self-control and passive acceptance of whatever befell you. It's just that for some reason, Lee had this one year where he was on fire.
(He doesn't say, but I think it may be important, that Lee was a brilliant general against McClellan (whose psychology he understood perfectly and also how to leverage it), Pope, and Hooker, all of whom made, objectively, enormous mistakes against him. It's easy to look good when your opponent is tripping over his own shoelaces. There was an enormous Union mistake at Gettysburg, too (his name was Dan Sickles), and Meade only barely kept from capsizing on Day 2, but Day 3 was just bad generalship on Lee's part.
(Grant made mistakes---Cold Harbor, anyone?---it's just that he didn't fall back because of them. Grant used the Union's superior numbers to brute force his ultimate success, not any kind of tactical genius.)
Anyway, this book is well-written and well-argued and gives a vivid portrait of Robert E. Lee.
Four and a half stars, round up to five.
(He doesn't say, but I think it may be important, that Lee was a brilliant general against McClellan (whose psychology he understood perfectly and also how to leverage it), Pope, and Hooker, all of whom made, objectively, enormous mistakes against him. It's easy to look good when your opponent is tripping over his own shoelaces. There was an enormous Union mistake at Gettysburg, too (his name was Dan Sickles), and Meade only barely kept from capsizing on Day 2, but Day 3 was just bad generalship on Lee's part.
(Grant made mistakes---Cold Harbor, anyone?---it's just that he didn't fall back because of them. Grant used the Union's superior numbers to brute force his ultimate success, not any kind of tactical genius.)
Anyway, this book is well-written and well-argued and gives a vivid portrait of Robert E. Lee.
Four and a half stars, round up to five.
February 13, 2022
Very interesting and in depth look into General Lee’s life. This book was written well but definitely not an easy read.
January 29, 2012
Why does a Canadian care about the US Civil War? He winds up contradicting everything he says throughout the book in his summary. Other than that, a good book.
January 13, 2025
This is neither a hagiography nor a take-down piece of Lee. It is an honest attempt to reveal the true man behind the legends with all that entails. It ends up being rather negative, but the author never goes further than can be proved from Lee's own words.
I appreciated how much of the book relies on Lee's own words and primary sources. He get to hear him in his own voice describe his thoughts. They get placed in context, but it never feels like the author is imposing his own ideas of interpretation of Lee.
It is clear how little of Lee's mythos are rooted in reality. Gettysburg was his failure, but he never acknowledged his part in the defeat. Indeed, for a long time, he refused to recognize that it was anything other than a victory for the south.
I was not surprised by the racism or white supremacy because that was to be expected. I was surprised to find how much Lee looked down upon democracy in general. He was as big a believer in the aristocracy as you can find. He thought no more of poor "ungentlemanly" whites than he did of other races. I was also surprised by the vigorous nature of his flirting with other women. The author is conservative and never accuses him of any physical infidelity. But it is clear he consistently and continually crossed lines in letters. It is hard to imagine he never did so in any other way.
Part of me wished the book had more depth in dealing with military history specifically. Most of the battles and conflicts are skipped over or only casually referenced to. Someone who wants to read it specifically because for that insight will be disappointed. But for someone who wants to know about the man and does not desire an in-depth look at battles will find much to appreciate.
You get a sense of who he was as a person. He was deeply religious and a firm believer in the role of the nobles in ruling society. This was foundational to him as a person. Everything he thought and did seemed rooted in this idea. I randomly picked this book up at a library sale and I am so glad I did. It was great to get more depth and context on who Lee actually was.
I appreciated how much of the book relies on Lee's own words and primary sources. He get to hear him in his own voice describe his thoughts. They get placed in context, but it never feels like the author is imposing his own ideas of interpretation of Lee.
It is clear how little of Lee's mythos are rooted in reality. Gettysburg was his failure, but he never acknowledged his part in the defeat. Indeed, for a long time, he refused to recognize that it was anything other than a victory for the south.
I was not surprised by the racism or white supremacy because that was to be expected. I was surprised to find how much Lee looked down upon democracy in general. He was as big a believer in the aristocracy as you can find. He thought no more of poor "ungentlemanly" whites than he did of other races. I was also surprised by the vigorous nature of his flirting with other women. The author is conservative and never accuses him of any physical infidelity. But it is clear he consistently and continually crossed lines in letters. It is hard to imagine he never did so in any other way.
Part of me wished the book had more depth in dealing with military history specifically. Most of the battles and conflicts are skipped over or only casually referenced to. Someone who wants to read it specifically because for that insight will be disappointed. But for someone who wants to know about the man and does not desire an in-depth look at battles will find much to appreciate.
You get a sense of who he was as a person. He was deeply religious and a firm believer in the role of the nobles in ruling society. This was foundational to him as a person. Everything he thought and did seemed rooted in this idea. I randomly picked this book up at a library sale and I am so glad I did. It was great to get more depth and context on who Lee actually was.
July 24, 2017
I read a biography of Robert E. Lee about 50 odd years ago (my second historical biography, after one on Abe Lincoln) that was pretty much hagiographic. This one was more balanced, but very much set in the late 20th century. The author included lots of original source material that contributed a lot to understanding Lee, but the attempt at psychoanalysis of "Why didn't Lee win at Gettysburg?" sounded like a pop culture experience, which was ever so popular among history buffs in the 1970's, but it's so dated now. He touched on all the main blame themes, while completely ignoring the fact that Meade's Army of the Potomac fought like devils, held the high ground, and didn't break and run when attacked head on. Lee made a glaring tactical blunder, and his troops paid with their lives. There are enough insights in this book for me to able to recommend it to Civil War buffs that want to refresh their knowledge of Robert E. Lee. I'm not aware of any better recent biographies of him out there now.
August 9, 2015
Robert E. Lee was a conflicted man. A man conflicted about his decision to join the Confederates and what happened in the end. It would be hard not to be bitter when the opposing side makes your home into a military cemetery. Despite his choices, he did the best he could after the war to cooperate with Congress etc...while demanding the same from everyone around him. His children turned out to be a very interesting part of his story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews