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2 weeks ago | 
americanheritage.com | Joseph Connor |Edwin Grosvenor |Elizabeth R. Varon |Fergus Bordewich
As April 1865 neared, an exhausted Abraham Lincoln met with his two top generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, to discuss the end of the Civil War, which finally seemed to be within reach. Nevertheless, the president—“having seen enough of the horrors of war”—remained deeply conflicted.
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Nov 17, 2024 | 
washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Elizabeth R. Varon
One might substitute the “rigged…stolen” U.S. presidential election of 2020 for the Civil War that some still insist was a battle over states’ rights and not slavery. Such comparisons come to mind when reading Longstreet, a new and impressive biography of James Longstreet, the Confederate general who not only accepted defeat but also its logical aftermath: Reconstruction of a rebellious South forced to reform its racist ways. The author of six previous books on the Civil War years, Elizabeth R.
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Jul 13, 2024 | 
strategypage.com | Elizabeth R. Varon
by Elizabeth VaronNew York: Simon & Schuster, 2023. Pp. xviii, 459+. Illus., notes, biblio., index.. $19.47. ISBN: 1982148276The Confederacy’s Most Controversial GeneralProf.
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Nov 22, 2023 | 
auburnpub.com | Elizabeth R. Varon |Mary Ann Gwinn
James Longstreet was the most loyal of Confederates. A Southerner, slave owner and second in command to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet, despite grave misgivings about Lee's strategy for the battle of Gettysburg, followed orders and led a charge that decimated the Confederate Army and destroyed Southern hopes. But Longstreet had friends on both sides of the conflict, notably Ulysses S. Grant, Union Army commander and a fast friend since the two were cadets at West Point.
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Nov 22, 2023 | 
sacbee.com | Elizabeth R. Varon
James Longstreet was the most loyal of Confederates. A Southerner, slave owner and second in command to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet, despite grave misgivings about Lee's strategy for the battle of Gettysburg, followed orders and led a charge that decimated the Confederate Army and destroyed Southern hopes. But Longstreet had friends on both sides of the conflict, notably Ulysses S. Grant, Union Army commander and a fast friend since the two were cadets at West Point.
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Nov 15, 2023 | 
startribune.com | Elizabeth R. Varon
James Longstreet was the most loyal of Confederates. A Southerner, slave owner and second in command to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet, despite grave misgivings about Lee's strategy for the battle of Gettysburg, followed orders and led a charge that decimated the Confederate Army and destroyed Southern hopes. But Longstreet had friends on both sides of the conflict, notably Ulysses S. Grant, Union Army commander and a fast friend since the two were cadets at West Point.
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Nov 15, 2023 | 
washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Elizabeth R. Varon
Imagine a political maverick rejecting the leader and crusade he’d long supported, along with the mythology that sustained a lie some continued to cling to as if truth were irrelevant. I refer, of course, to “the Lost Cause,” a credo subscribed to by millions (and generations) of, not to mince words, losers. One might substitute the “rigged…stolen” U.S. presidential election of 2020 for the Civil War that some still insist was a battle over states’ rights and not slavery.
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Nov 14, 2023 | 
ajc.com | Jeff Calder |Elizabeth R. Varon
In her biography, “Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South,” the eminent Civil War historian Elizabeth R. Varon examines the Georgian’s military and civilian career and considers explanations for his startling about-face. Born in 1821 in South Carolina, Longstreet grows up in Gainesville, north of Atlanta.
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Nov 13, 2023 | 
newyorkfolk.com | James White |Elizabeth R. Varon
During the summer of 1997, my wife and I picked up our 9-year-old daughter from a ballet camp in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and drove to the nearby Gettysburg National Military Park, which they had never seen and I barely remembered from a boyhood visit. The park’s presentation of history left much to be desired.
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Nov 3, 2023 | 
thriftbooks.com | Elizabeth R. Varon |Frederick Douglass |Stephen King
Select FormatBook OverviewAn authoritative biography of the controversial Confederate general, who later embraced Reconstruction and became an outcast in the South. It was the most remarkable political about-face in American history. During the Civil War, General James Longstreet fought tenaciously for the Confederacy. He was alongside Lee at Gettysburg (and counseled him not to order the ill-fated attacks on entrenched Union forces there). He won a major Confederate victory...
