Joshua Chamberlain

During the past two decades Joshua Chamberlain has emerged as a modern icon, featured in the novel The Killer Angels, the film Gettysburg, and Ken Burns's series The Civil War. Numerous biographers dissect his Civil War career, living history interpreters speak on his behalf, and even a beer bears his likeness and name. Renowned historian John J. Pullen, who first introduced Joshua Chamberlain to modern readers, is again approaching the subject of this complex man. This new biographical essay explores Chamberlain's later life through the lens of his experiences during the Civil War and examines his place in history--both man and myth.