The Hero of Little Round Top: The Life and Legacy of Joshua Chamberlain

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: James McSorley

Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

For much of the 20th century, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's life and career remained mostly obscure outside of dedicated scholars of the Battle of Gettysburg and alumni and students of Bowdoin College. Colonel Chamberlain had led the 20th Maine regiment at Gettysburg, holding the extreme left of the Union line on Little Round Top, and he continued to rise up the ranks toward the end of the war until he was commanding a brigade and present at the surrender ceremony of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. After the Civil War, Chamberlain served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College.

Chamberlain had a respectable Civil War career and life, but he had been largely forgotten in the decades after the Civil War, with the focus on more influential commanding generals and their principal subordinates. Then a remarkable thing happened with the 1974 publication of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel that focused on the Battle of Gettysburg and its influential generals and leaders. In one fell swoop, Michael Shaara breathed life back into the reputations of men like John Buford and Joshua Chamberlain, cast as the Union heroes of day one and day two respectively that made victory at Gettysburg possible. In the novel Chamberlain's regiment holds the high ground against a series of desperate Confederate charges, and when they ran out of gunpowder, Chamberlain ordered a brave bayonet charge that drove the Confederates in their front from the fight. With that, the Union's left flank was saved.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Beware this book is NOT about Chamberlain.

Chamberlain has a very interesting life story much of which I was able to learn about touring his home in Maine which is now an active museum. My hope was this book would expand on that. Unfortunately only about 30 minutes of this audible actually focuses on him. This book is a very broad review of the entire Civil War and will occasionally include a small mention of Chamberlains role in that particular part of the war. I think I heard more about General Lee and his command staff than anything else.

In my opinion an audience looking to read about Chamberlain most likely already have a good grasp on the war and do not need to have it explained to them. It made this incredibly boring and disappointing.

The gentleman reading the book overall did very well although he mispronounced some battle names and mistook the roman numeral corp designations as letters referring to 1st Corp as the “i corp” for example.

A Class Act

Joshua Chamberlain exudes the qualities of America’s leaders. He was educated & determined to join the fight to end slavery. A contemporary of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Chamberlain was a man who served the Union with honor & distinction both in his community & state (Maine) & in the US Army. He served in numerous battles…from Gettysburg to Appomattox.

good read listen

his story well told worth listening to again. good leadership pathway for all of us.

Read the fine print., t

While fine as an intro to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, this is no “book.” The reading of this story takes barely 2 hours. I was expecting something a lot pithier. No disrespect to Chamberlain, but be careful before you spend a $17 credit in this short story.

Mostly about the Civil War

I wanted to learn more about Chamberlain and his life. This was mostly and over view of the Civil War and a brief likeness of Chamberlain. He felt like a foot not to the narative.

Awful

I was intrigued with Chamberlain, but this is an awful book. The Audible version is a passionless reading that sounds like the voice on the navigation system. It is short and not nearly as detailed as a Wikipedia article. Total waste.