Summer's Bloodiest Days: The Battle of Gettysburg as Told from All Sides - Hardcover

Weber, Jennifer

3.91

22 ratings by Goodreads

9781426307065: Summer's Bloodiest Days: The Battle of Gettysburg as Told from All Sides

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1426307063 ISBN 13: 9781426307065

Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books, 2010

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Timed for the Civil War anniversary in 2011, this book powerfully illustrates a true turning point in American history. Gettysburg expert Jennifer Weber tells the story of the momentous battle through the voices of those who were there, a unique approach that makes this title stand out from all others.
Gripping eyewitness accounts, archival photographs, and dramatic artwork combine with the latest research to portray the Battle of Gettysburg from all sides—Yankees and Rebels, officers and foot soldiers, men and women, townspeople and outside observers. Through their eyes, today’s students get a real sense of how a chance meeting on a dusty road exploded into three days of intense combat. Maps specially created by National Geographic cartographers help us follow all the action of the vicious and complex battle, during which more than 50,000 people were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Names such as Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, and Pickett’s Charge take on new meaning as young readers learn about the incredible sacrifices made—often by people still in their teens.

National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.
Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

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About the Author:

Jennifer Weber is a native of California who worked for several years in her home state as a journalist and political aide. Her principal interest is the Civil War, especially the seams where political, social, and military history come together. Her book Copperheads, about antiwar Democrats in the Civil War North, was published in 2006. Dr. Weber is a codirector of the University of Kansas’s Peace, War, & Global Change seminar. In addition to her work there, she serves on the advisory panel for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History Emeritus at Princeton University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Civil War, and the New York Times bestselling Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 4-7–Pulling readers headlong into the sights, sounds, and smells of the battle at Gettysburg, Weber paints a picture, rich in descriptive detail, of terrifying encounters, exhausted soldiers, and tedious waiting mixed with chaos and confusion. She outlines how this decisive showdown was actually more happenstance than strategy, and how General Lee's defeat here, while it did not end the war, put him and the Southern army on the defensive for the next two years, never allowing them to gain back an advantage. While the three-day battle is described chronologically, the author begins with Lincoln's famous address at the dedication of the memorial cemetery and then provides some context for the war, its causes, and basic highlights up until those fateful days in early July. The narration is occasionally confusing as it hops between the Northern and Southern perspectives as well as explaining troop movements, various commanders, regiments, and locations in and around Gettysburg. The text is interspersed with bits of first-person accounts, original photographs, and reprints of flyers and other primary-source material that make it an invaluable resource for students and teachers. A detailed time line, websites, and a bibliography are useful additions. Font sizes for captions and sidebars are small, which can be distracting, but overall this is an attractive, informative account of an important American event.–Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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