Still, all in all, this is a great book and highly recommended as a more "entry level" study of the Gettysburg campaign. But again, without footnotes, you'll have to take his word for their veracity. So his book is filled with texture-little experiences in the lives of common soldiers (and leaders) that never seem to make it into the history books, but which make the story live.
Remember, Foote is more of a novelist/storyteller than an academic historian. Don't look for footnotes here because they'll only slow you down. Complete with detailed maps, Stars in Their Courses brilliantly recreates the three-day conflict: It is a masterly treatment of a key great battle and the events that preceded it-not as legend has it but as it really was, before it became distorted by controversy and overblown by remembered glory. I know it might sound strange, but otherwise his broken sentences can be a bit confusing. Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign By Shelby Foote Modern Library, 304 pages, 13.50 The three volumes of Shelby Footes 'The Civil War: A Narrative,' a monumental. I found that this book was best read by "hearing" Foote's voice. Obviously there's a difference between the written word and the spoken word. Foote writes like he talks-with lots of dashes interrupting his thought. As I read "Stars in Their Courses," at times I began to hear his voice, almost as if it was an audio book. If you're familiar with the Ken Burns series on the Civil War, you know Shelby Foote's voice.
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