Longstreet

By Elizabeth Varon,

Book cover of Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

Book description

Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography
American Battlefield Trust Prize for History Finalist

A "compelling portrait" (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize -winning author) 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.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Longstreet as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love biographies, and I particularly loved this one because it portrayed a brilliant, accomplished, but complicated soul. Here was a man, a rebel hardliner who was once Robert E. Lee’s sounding board and deeply respected throughout the defeated Confederacy.

I wanted to know why he defied the South, became good friends with President Grant, joined the Republican Party (Lincoln’s party), and became a supporter of Radical Reconstruction. As I read, I learned, and the learning fascinated me.

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