Challenging conventional views; stretching the minds of Civil War enthusiasts and scholars as only John Michael Priest can; Into the Fight is both a scholarly and a revisionist interpretation of the most famous charge in American history. Using a wide array of sources; ranging from the monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield to the accounts of the participants themselves; Priest here rewrites the conventional thinking about this unusually emotional; yet serious; moment in our Civil War. Starting with a fresh point of view; and with no axes to grind; Into the Fight challenges all interested in that stunning moment in history to rethink their assumptions. Worthwhile for its use of soldiers’ accounts; valuable for its forcing the reader to rethink the common assumptions about the charge; critics may disagree with this research; but they cannot ignore it.
#3988832 in Books 2014-06-30 2001-04-30Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .94 x 5.51l; 1.42 #File Name: 1571812148416 pages
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. The Good and the BadBy Brian HendricksIn 1997; a conference was held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM); resulting in a collection of papers that have been accumulate into In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century. The contributors to this collection are from a wide range of disciplines: History; Art History; Political Science and Comparative Religion; along with an Israeli writer/poet and a Researcher at the Center for Law and Culture in Paris. Using four genocides that occurred the twentieth century; Armenian; the Holocaust; Rwanda and Bosnia; the writers focus on three aspects of religion in genocide; "the use of religion to legitimize and motivate genocide;...the potential of religious faith to encourage physical and spiritual resistance to mass murder;...and the role of religion in coming to terms with the legacy of atrocity." The majority of the attention of this book was given to the first of the three aspects; with the other two receiving the attention of several contributors.Ronald Grigor Suny opened with a study on the Armenian Genocide in "Religion; Ethnicity; and Nationalism." Suny goes to great lengths to show how the Turks blended the religious (Muslim vs. Christian) differences and blended it into the ethnic (Turk vs. Armenian) differences; leading to progressively worse measures against the Armenians until genocide occurred in 1915. This was followed by chapters by Ericksen; Heschel; and Griech-Polelle documented the changes within the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany; that led to the support of the Holocaust of the Jews; or the reluctance to stand up for human rights in the face of the overall mistreatment of the Jews and other groups in Germany.Just as important as the contributions of religion to promoting genocide is the role religion plays in the victim's lives; as they fight for survival in the wake of death. Ara Sarafian leads off Part II (Survival) with a study of the absorption of Armenian women and children into Muslim households; followed by an account of Margit Slachta; by Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen; a Catholic Nun who worked vigorously to save the lives of Jews in Hungary. Though the Armenians were generally selected and forced to join Muslim households while the Jewish victims made a conscience choice to be baptized Catholic in an effort to save themselves from death; both showed the internal struggles faced in joining a new religion; even in the face of death.The final section; Aftermath: Politics; Faith; and Representation; nearly exclusively focused on Jewish issues. Yair Auron discussed the Armenian Genocide; but in regards to Zionist and Israeli attitudes toward it. Maud Mandel "compared" Armenians and Jews in France following their genocides; but used the Armenians as a baseline to the perceived Jewish crisis following the Holocaust. The book closes with the beautifully written; emotionally-charged contribution of Michal Gorvin "The Journey to Poland". The letter; previously written to her parents in 1975 after a visit to Krakow and other historical points; gave some personal insight into the emotions that fill those who survived the Holocaust; and their children.Being that the original conference took place at the USHMM; it is of no surprise that twelve of the seventeen chapters; in whole or in part; involved the Holocaust and Jewish impact. While the Holocaust is the most discussed genocide in the history of the world; the Rwandan and Bosnian Genocides were largely ignored. Timothy Longman and Charles de Lespinay contributed articles to the first section (The Perpetrators) while Michael Sells contributed the sole article on the Bosnian Genocide in the same section. Neither of the most recent genocides received any attention in the resistance or the coming to terms sections; and this leaves a gaping hole that should; and could; have been filled.Chapters worth your time:Genocide; Religion; and Gerhard Kittel by Robert P. EricksenWhen Jesus Was an Aryan by Susannah HeschelA Pure Conscience is Good Enough by Beth Griech-Polelle**Between God and Hitler by Doris L. BergenChristian Churches and the Genocide in Rwanda by Timothy LongmanThe Absorption of Women and Children... by Ara SarafianTranscending Boundaries by Jessica A. Sheetz-NguyenDenial and Defiance in the Work of Rabbi Regina Jones by Katharina von KellenbachA Personal Account by Gabor Vermes**The Journey to Poland by Michal GovrinThe starred articles were my favorites.0 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A MUST READ BOOK ! Unless you prefer being ignorant. ( some people do ...).By brunoIn the past 1700 years Christendom has killed a billion and a half people ... in Europe alone .. in its tribal wars. (For three hundred years Christians did not war... until they became "best buds" with the High Priest of the sun god "Sol Invictus"; Emporer Constantine).This is an excellent MUST READ book; showing Christendom has not changed.
