What a difference 5 years makes.
This essay was originally published in The Georgia Review, Vol. II, No. 3 (Fall 1948), 297-303.
As the Civil War assumes increasingly the role of an American Iliad, a tendency sets in for its heroes to take on Fixed characterizations. Epithets of praise and blame begin to recur, and a single virtue usurps the right to personify the individual. In the course of these formations, Robert E. Lee has emerged perhaps too exclusively as soldier and paterfamilias. These careers were central in his life, but they do not exhaust the man. Lee transcended some extremely difficult situations, which must have mastered him had he not been, in addition to warrior and patrician, an intellect.
More @ The Abbeville Institute
No comments:
Post a Comment