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Robert E. Lee: The Man, the Soldier, the Myth
A comprehensive young adult biography of the life of one of the most mythologized men in American and Civil War General Lee of the Confederate States Army
Robert E. Lee’s life was filled with responsibility and loyalty. Born to a Revolutionary War hero, Lee learned a sense of duty and restraint after weathering scandals brought on by his father and eldest brother. He found the perfect way to channel this sense of duty at West Point, where he spent his days under rigorous teachers who taught him the organizational skills and discipline he would apply for the rest of his life. The military became Lee’s he was often away from his beloved family, making strides with the Army, forcibly expanding the United States toward the Western coastline, and fighting the Mexican-American War. And ultimately, the military and his defining role therein—General of the Confederate Army—would prove to be Lee’s legacy.
Author Brandon Marie Miller separates fact from fiction and reveals the complex truth behind who Lee was as a person, a soldier, a general, and a father. The book includes numerous archival images, as well as original quotations, a timeline, an author's note, a family tree, source notes, a bibliography, and an index.
Robert E. Lee’s life was filled with responsibility and loyalty. Born to a Revolutionary War hero, Lee learned a sense of duty and restraint after weathering scandals brought on by his father and eldest brother. He found the perfect way to channel this sense of duty at West Point, where he spent his days under rigorous teachers who taught him the organizational skills and discipline he would apply for the rest of his life. The military became Lee’s he was often away from his beloved family, making strides with the Army, forcibly expanding the United States toward the Western coastline, and fighting the Mexican-American War. And ultimately, the military and his defining role therein—General of the Confederate Army—would prove to be Lee’s legacy.
Author Brandon Marie Miller separates fact from fiction and reveals the complex truth behind who Lee was as a person, a soldier, a general, and a father. The book includes numerous archival images, as well as original quotations, a timeline, an author's note, a family tree, source notes, a bibliography, and an index.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published June 11, 2019
2 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Marie Miller
17 books22 followersBrandon Marie Miller
Author Biography
Brandon Marie Miller earned her degree in American History from Purdue University. She writes about famous people and common folk, about great events and everyday life. Her award-winning books for young people have been honored by the International Reading Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Library Association, the Society of School Librarians International, Voice of Youth Advocates, Bank Street College, the Junior Library Guild, the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library, among others.
Brandon encourages readers to think of history as the greatest story of all. Fiction has nothing on history for tales of courage, sacrifice, redemption, cruelty and betrayal. As a writer of history Brandon aims to inspire readers with stories of people who have struggled, overcome great odds, and made a contribution to our human spirit. It’s no coincidence that “story” is right there in the word history!
Born and raised in Illinois, Brandon lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. When not researching and writing, she loves to read biographies and murder mysteries, travel, play games, attend the ballet, watch sports and old movies from the 1930s and 1940s, and enjoy great conversation. She includes her middle name on all her books so people know she is a girl named “Brandon”
Find out more:
www.brandonmariemiller.com
http://hands-on-books.blogspot.com
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 20, 2023
Robert E. Lee: The Man, The Soldier, The Myth, by Brandon Marie Miller
There are many paradoxes about the life of Robert E. Lee and the many writings about him. One of them is that so much has been written about Robert E. Lee--over 1000 books to date so far, a fair amount which I have read or at least heard about--while nearly everyone who writes about him is puzzled and often frustrated by the mystery that continues to surround the man. While writers in the past were generally content to let sleeping dogs lie and avoid prodding too much into Lee's notable reserve and simply praise him for his efforts at rectitude in the face of great provocations, and for his mildness in dealing with difficult people despite his ambitions and frustrations, contemporary writers find it necessary to delve into psychological reasons for why it is that Lee was so subterranean, as if it was a bad thing in a world like his own, or like ours today, to keep one's feelings close to the heart and not to reveal the full depths of what was going on inside of him. Likewise, one of the constants about Lee is that nearly everyone who writes about him nowadays feels it necessary to attack the large body of myths that have surrounded Lee the way a large bodyguard of lies protects the truth in Churchill's view. Why it is not enough simply to see the humanity in Lee, and in those people who wrote about Lee and who saw in his stubborn sense of personal honor a worthy example of restraint to follow in the face of provocation, has always been something that has puzzled me, personally.
This book is a relatively short one at just over 250 pages, given the ambitious subject matter. The book begins with some thoughts that tip the reader off about the author's desire to dispel some myths about Lee as well as some acknowledgements and a family tree of Lee and his wife. The first chapter of the book discusses the scandalous family history that Lee sought to escape (1), which included his bankrupt father and a half-brother who had seduced his younger sister-in-law and apparently robbed from her before fleeing for Europe. This is followed by a discussion of Lee's time at West Point (2). A chapter about Lee's courtship of his wife, the step-great-granddaughter of George Washington himself (3), and the little Lees that followed the marriage (4) then follows. Two chapters about Lee's experience in working hard in obscure places for his country in the army (5, 7) are bookended by a chapter on Lee's time in Mexico (6), which shows Lee's slow promotion in the peacetime army as well as his glory in Mexico in learning about topography and tactics. The author talks about his struggles with the slaves of his father-in-law's estate, which took some time to sort out (8), and his increasing frustration with sectional division (9). The next chapter after this covers Lee's generally inglorious first year of war where for some reason he was thought best fit as an advisor and kept from active field command, an obvious mistake (10). This is followed by chapters that discuss Lee's boldness at Seven Days and Second Bull Run (11) and his determination not to be idle at Antietam to try to knock the North out in a single battle along with his successful stand at Fredericksburg (12). This is followed by a chapter on Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (13) as well as another chapter on the frustration he faced in trying to fend off Grant's Overland campaign to avoid defeat becoming a mere question of time (14). This is followed by a discussion of the siege at Petersburg and his surrender at Appomattox Courthouse (15). A discussion of his immediate postwar experience (16) is then followed by Lee's efforts to revive Washington College (17), which was posthumously renamed in his honor, as well as chapters about the lack of restoration of peace that Lee felt reconstruction provided (18), and a discussion of the lost cause (19), and the myths that have abounded about it (epilogue). The book then ends with an author's note, timeline, source notes, bibliography, index, and picture credits.
There are a lot of myths and a lot of falsehoods when it comes to history. Regardless of who is in charge of vetting and encouraging history education, some falsehood and lies are always promoted. For example, the lie that slavery was the foundation of our nation's wealth is currently being pushed by the 1619 Project, which greatly exaggerates the role of slavery in the United States, both in the United States as a slave destination and the importance of slavery to America's economic development and wealth. Yet there are not hundreds of books that seek to debunk these lies. Instead, the debunking only goes one direction, to seek to remove the dignity that partisans of a defeated and unsuccessful rebellion sought to give themselves through taking up the pen in defense of their own honor in the bitter aftermath of their defeat in the Civil War. To reduce the complexity in what Confederates fought for both during the war in fighting and afterwards in writing to mere slavery and racism (even if those were definitely present) and then to seek to use the power of government and extralegal violent anarchist destruction to attack those from the past who can no longer defend themselves and their reputations--and who would have defended themselves fiercely, even violently, if they had been given the chance--is particularly unjust. Lee's own ambivalent relationship with slavery, in that he enjoyed the services provided to him by others while seeking to avoid the unpleasant and burdensome task of handling slave labor forces, was probably not an isolated experience. This ambivalence deserves better treatment than the scorn that contemporary historians often have for the people of the past. It does us no good to dispel the moss-covered myths of the past with ugly graffitied libels. Hopefully at least some writers will learn that lesson.
There are many paradoxes about the life of Robert E. Lee and the many writings about him. One of them is that so much has been written about Robert E. Lee--over 1000 books to date so far, a fair amount which I have read or at least heard about--while nearly everyone who writes about him is puzzled and often frustrated by the mystery that continues to surround the man. While writers in the past were generally content to let sleeping dogs lie and avoid prodding too much into Lee's notable reserve and simply praise him for his efforts at rectitude in the face of great provocations, and for his mildness in dealing with difficult people despite his ambitions and frustrations, contemporary writers find it necessary to delve into psychological reasons for why it is that Lee was so subterranean, as if it was a bad thing in a world like his own, or like ours today, to keep one's feelings close to the heart and not to reveal the full depths of what was going on inside of him. Likewise, one of the constants about Lee is that nearly everyone who writes about him nowadays feels it necessary to attack the large body of myths that have surrounded Lee the way a large bodyguard of lies protects the truth in Churchill's view. Why it is not enough simply to see the humanity in Lee, and in those people who wrote about Lee and who saw in his stubborn sense of personal honor a worthy example of restraint to follow in the face of provocation, has always been something that has puzzled me, personally.
This book is a relatively short one at just over 250 pages, given the ambitious subject matter. The book begins with some thoughts that tip the reader off about the author's desire to dispel some myths about Lee as well as some acknowledgements and a family tree of Lee and his wife. The first chapter of the book discusses the scandalous family history that Lee sought to escape (1), which included his bankrupt father and a half-brother who had seduced his younger sister-in-law and apparently robbed from her before fleeing for Europe. This is followed by a discussion of Lee's time at West Point (2). A chapter about Lee's courtship of his wife, the step-great-granddaughter of George Washington himself (3), and the little Lees that followed the marriage (4) then follows. Two chapters about Lee's experience in working hard in obscure places for his country in the army (5, 7) are bookended by a chapter on Lee's time in Mexico (6), which shows Lee's slow promotion in the peacetime army as well as his glory in Mexico in learning about topography and tactics. The author talks about his struggles with the slaves of his father-in-law's estate, which took some time to sort out (8), and his increasing frustration with sectional division (9). The next chapter after this covers Lee's generally inglorious first year of war where for some reason he was thought best fit as an advisor and kept from active field command, an obvious mistake (10). This is followed by chapters that discuss Lee's boldness at Seven Days and Second Bull Run (11) and his determination not to be idle at Antietam to try to knock the North out in a single battle along with his successful stand at Fredericksburg (12). This is followed by a chapter on Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (13) as well as another chapter on the frustration he faced in trying to fend off Grant's Overland campaign to avoid defeat becoming a mere question of time (14). This is followed by a discussion of the siege at Petersburg and his surrender at Appomattox Courthouse (15). A discussion of his immediate postwar experience (16) is then followed by Lee's efforts to revive Washington College (17), which was posthumously renamed in his honor, as well as chapters about the lack of restoration of peace that Lee felt reconstruction provided (18), and a discussion of the lost cause (19), and the myths that have abounded about it (epilogue). The book then ends with an author's note, timeline, source notes, bibliography, index, and picture credits.
There are a lot of myths and a lot of falsehoods when it comes to history. Regardless of who is in charge of vetting and encouraging history education, some falsehood and lies are always promoted. For example, the lie that slavery was the foundation of our nation's wealth is currently being pushed by the 1619 Project, which greatly exaggerates the role of slavery in the United States, both in the United States as a slave destination and the importance of slavery to America's economic development and wealth. Yet there are not hundreds of books that seek to debunk these lies. Instead, the debunking only goes one direction, to seek to remove the dignity that partisans of a defeated and unsuccessful rebellion sought to give themselves through taking up the pen in defense of their own honor in the bitter aftermath of their defeat in the Civil War. To reduce the complexity in what Confederates fought for both during the war in fighting and afterwards in writing to mere slavery and racism (even if those were definitely present) and then to seek to use the power of government and extralegal violent anarchist destruction to attack those from the past who can no longer defend themselves and their reputations--and who would have defended themselves fiercely, even violently, if they had been given the chance--is particularly unjust. Lee's own ambivalent relationship with slavery, in that he enjoyed the services provided to him by others while seeking to avoid the unpleasant and burdensome task of handling slave labor forces, was probably not an isolated experience. This ambivalence deserves better treatment than the scorn that contemporary historians often have for the people of the past. It does us no good to dispel the moss-covered myths of the past with ugly graffitied libels. Hopefully at least some writers will learn that lesson.
December 11, 2019
This was a fantastic read! I would have given it five stars except I think the ending should have been longer! Brandon Marie Miller presents the facts about Robert Lee, his command of the Army of Northern Virginia, and his views on enslaved people and the institution of slavery in an attempt to present the truth of some of the mythology surrounding him. However, in doing so, she provides a well-rounded and fair portrait of Lee. Truly, the last chapter was the most fascinating to me as she details the attempts and explains why such myths were purported in the first place. As a teacher and a school librarian, I really was interested in her discussion about the control over how textbooks presented the Civil War. I also found this book pretty easy to read and follow.
November 27, 2019
Miller's book about the life of Robert E. Lee, written for a young adult audience, uses Lee's own words from sources such as his journals, letters, and speeches to separate facts from the fiction and myths too often told as truth. As a historian, Miller digs deep into research so young readers can understand how Lee's actions were based on his professed beliefs about race and his duty to the slaveholding state of Virginia.
December 17, 2019
Written for the teen reader, but an informative resource for adult readers as well. Weeding out the myths from the facts is what Brandon M Miller does in this biography of one of America’s most famous generals. Using primary sources, (letters, newspaper articles, speeches) Miller paints a portrait of the man, the soldier, and the myth. Not glossing over the atrocious or inflating the exemplary, Miller presents every detail in simple honest truths.
May 28, 2024
A well-researched, plain-spoken dismantling of the myth of Robert E. Lee. Through his personal letters and public statements, Miller shows Lee to be an exceptional solider but also a man of his place and time: a very conservative Southern slaveholding racist. Most interesting was the look at Lee trying to what we’d now see as PR damage control, kicking dirt over past statements and trying to recreate his noble image in the years following his surrender to Grant.
May 20, 2024
Lee was a fine gentleman, soldier, family man, but prejudiced to the end. He fought for a "lost cause" that approved of slavery and he right of the South continue and expand slavery beyond the South. This book fairly gives all sides of Lee.
December 20, 2019
A fascinating biography of the most important Confederate General of the Civil War. It's an informative book for Northerners, for sadly, we're educated about the Civil War from a northern perspective and learn little about the Southern generals. Lee's role in the US Army Corps of Engineers, his diligence in enhancing education at West Point and later at Washington (and Lee) College, and his drive for military excellence makes him stand out among military men of the nineteenth century.
Written for young adults, the reader learns about Lee's life in the military, his career, prominent and illustrious family, and most importantly, his importance during the Civil War.
Miller's writing is fluid and easily understandable, perfect for YA and adult readers, for the person curious about military men and their role in the development and expansion of the United States.
Written for young adults, the reader learns about Lee's life in the military, his career, prominent and illustrious family, and most importantly, his importance during the Civil War.
Miller's writing is fluid and easily understandable, perfect for YA and adult readers, for the person curious about military men and their role in the development and expansion of the United States.
April 24, 2020
Miller artfully weaves primary source material into this biographical gem. Thanks to her skilled writing and deep research, readers will be captivated by the engaging life story of an infamous man as he traverses through and effects this nation's most divisive period in history. Teen and young adult readers will develop a greater understanding of the era and make the connections to issues involving race, class, and regionalism that continue to hold back America in the 21st century. Excerpts and quotes from speeches, letters, and journals allow us to judge him by his words, not the myths and hearsay too often sold as what Lee believed. Read it for yourself, look up the cited source material, and enjoy the journey of discovery.
December 12, 2019
A solid description of his life and beliefs, bolstered by a plethora of quotes from letters and other direct sources. Childhood, military service, the Civil War, and leaderhip of Washington University is his career, but a lot of time is also spent on his family -- his loser dad, hard working mom, scandal-prone older half brother, beloved wife and children all meant a lot.
At the end there's a discussion of the myths that spring up around Lee and the Civil War, and how these don't match the reality as shown in the documents left behind and the actions he took. He wasn't anti-slavery (and yes, the Civil War was about slavery). It's an engaging book.
At the end there's a discussion of the myths that spring up around Lee and the Civil War, and how these don't match the reality as shown in the documents left behind and the actions he took. He wasn't anti-slavery (and yes, the Civil War was about slavery). It's an engaging book.
January 3, 2020
Brandon Miller’s fascinating story of Robert E Lee is written for teens but excellent for adults to learn who the man Robert E Lee was. Brandon paints a picture of the man during this difficult time in our history. Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews