Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg
During our recent visit to the United States, we made a one-day visit to the site of the famous American civil war battlefield of Gettysburg [my account here]. I have just finished reading “The Killer Angels”, a brilliant novel by Michael Shaara set during the three days of the conflict [my review here].
I wanted to set the battle of Gettysburg into a wider contact, so I have also read a short history of the American civil war as a whole [my review here]. Really one cannot understand contemporary Amercian politics without having some appreciation of this bloody conflict.