Read The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society

The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society

Thomas Lawrence Connelly

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Description:He was a military genius and a spiritual leader, the nearest thing to a saint that the white South has possessed. For over a century the power of the Lee mystique has sustained him as the exemplar of what was best in the Confederacy. By now, Thomas L. Connelly suggests, the real Lee has been so submerged by the hero symbol that his essential characteristics have become blurred or even misrepresented.In The Marble Man Connelly examines Lee's hold on the American mind and traces the route that brought him into the American pantheon. He demonstrates that during and immediately following the Civil War, Lee was only one of several celebrated Confederate leaders. (Historical works published just after the war recognized Lee's military talents, but blamed him for the loss at Gettysburg.) However, in the 1870s a group of Virginians led by General Jubal Early took control of the Southern Historical Society and began a propaganda campaign to make Lee a national idol. And Connelly shows that every subsequent biography of Lee, culminating in Douglas Southall Freeman's prize-winning four-volume work, has been heavily influenced by these far from disinterested Virginia writers.The author's portrayal of Lee's early life is both fascinating and revealing. Lee's family had a history of debt, financial scandal, and moral disgrace. His marriage to Mary Custis, George Washington's step-granddaughter, was constantly troubled—she was a spoiled, unpleasant, sickly woman who despised army life. During his extensive military tours in the West, Lee was perpetually homesick for his family and his beloved Virginia. He regarded his army career as a failure—on the eve of the Civil War, at the age of fifty-four, he had just assumed the rank fo colonel.As Connelly points out, these considerations were not emphasized in the view of Lee accepted by Americans in the years after his death. That Lee was a man of flawless character who never disobeyed his mother; a noble officer who faced the agonizing choice between Virginia and the Union in 1861; a gallant general who was defeated only when vastly outnumbered; and an educator who tried to rescue a small college from bankruptcy rather than profit from his wartime experiences.Which was the real Lee? Thomas Connelly's intimations in this probing, thoughtful book go a long way in enlarging our view of an authentic American hero.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society. To get started finding The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
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Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: LSU Press

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ISBN: 0807104744

Description: He was a military genius and a spiritual leader, the nearest thing to a saint that the white South has possessed. For over a century the power of the Lee mystique has sustained him as the exemplar of what was best in the Confederacy. By now, Thomas L. Connelly suggests, the real Lee has been so submerged by the hero symbol that his essential characteristics have become blurred or even misrepresented.In The Marble Man Connelly examines Lee's hold on the American mind and traces the route that brought him into the American pantheon. He demonstrates that during and immediately following the Civil War, Lee was only one of several celebrated Confederate leaders. (Historical works published just after the war recognized Lee's military talents, but blamed him for the loss at Gettysburg.) However, in the 1870s a group of Virginians led by General Jubal Early took control of the Southern Historical Society and began a propaganda campaign to make Lee a national idol. And Connelly shows that every subsequent biography of Lee, culminating in Douglas Southall Freeman's prize-winning four-volume work, has been heavily influenced by these far from disinterested Virginia writers.The author's portrayal of Lee's early life is both fascinating and revealing. Lee's family had a history of debt, financial scandal, and moral disgrace. His marriage to Mary Custis, George Washington's step-granddaughter, was constantly troubled—she was a spoiled, unpleasant, sickly woman who despised army life. During his extensive military tours in the West, Lee was perpetually homesick for his family and his beloved Virginia. He regarded his army career as a failure—on the eve of the Civil War, at the age of fifty-four, he had just assumed the rank fo colonel.As Connelly points out, these considerations were not emphasized in the view of Lee accepted by Americans in the years after his death. That Lee was a man of flawless character who never disobeyed his mother; a noble officer who faced the agonizing choice between Virginia and the Union in 1861; a gallant general who was defeated only when vastly outnumbered; and an educator who tried to rescue a small college from bankruptcy rather than profit from his wartime experiences.Which was the real Lee? Thomas Connelly's intimations in this probing, thoughtful book go a long way in enlarging our view of an authentic American hero.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society. To get started finding The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society

The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society

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