Michael Korda (“Alone”) has written a life of Robert E, lee, “Clouds of Glory” which is equally as “approachable and captivating”. Lee’s image, based on audacity in battle and honor in defeat, has been suffered of late. Korda threads a middle ground between the rock of slavery and the hard place of the Lost Cause. The Lee that emerges from his pages is warmer than than Brady images, but nonetheless dominated by his rectitude and sense of duty. The latter famously led him in 1861 to fight for a cause he did not support. For an example of a Virginian whose sense of duty led in a different direction, try Christopher Einolf’s George Thomas: Virginian for the Union (coming soon to the library).
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