Subject: So. Studies/Sciences: History

U.S. History Series

Robert E. Lee - Beyond the Battles

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"Highly Recommended. Using contemporary on-location footage, re-enactors, photographic and portrait stills this production is an excellent look at the man, Robert Edward Lee. One historian has called him "the Marble Man" more an icon to the South than a flesh and blood man. This work gives us a look at his humanity. Presenting his family lineage (the Lees were one of the oldest and most prominent Virginia families), their history was very much intertwined with the early history of our country. Lee's father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, his wife the step-granddaughter of George Washington. The visual, which is given context by a narrator, character voices, and excellent commentary by a number of historians among whom are James Robertson and James McPherson, is flawless. Their commentary ranges from sympathetic to critical/politically correct. What we see is that Lee was very much a man of his era and place in society with all the attendant virtues and vices." -EMRO Review
This is the authoritative documentary on Robert E. Lee, the famed military leader of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Featuring the perspectives of America's leading Civil War historians, such as Pulitzer prize winner James M. McPherson, Gary W. Gallagher, James Robertson, Emory Thomas, and Holt Merchant, this program offers a sophisticated and accurate look at Lee's entire life and his resounding legacy; it goes far beyond the study of his well-documented military genius to explore the man from his boyhood to his adulthood as a husband, father, engineer, American soldier, college president, and peacemaker of the post-war years. Also original footage was shot at locations integral to Lee's life, including Stratford Hall, Alexandria, Shirley Plantation, Arlington House, Washington and Lee University, the city of Richmond, the United States Military Academy, Appomattox, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry. Produced by Rubicon Productions. 08DR JSCA 90 min.
Also See: Abraham Lincoln: His Life and His Legacy; Ely Parker (Seneca): Warrior in Two Worlds; Shelby Foote: The Man and the Civil War; The Forgotten Civil War; Lincoln, the Civil War and American Nationalism Associated Article: Making Sense of Robert E. Lee -Smithsonian Magazine