{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T232332Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525510109?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0525510109","authors":["Ronald C. White"],"book_id":"9780525510109","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/on-great-fields-0525510109","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525510109.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","description":"NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses comes the dramatic and definitive biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the history-altering professor turned Civil War hero. “A vital and vivid portrait of an unlikely military hero who played a key role in the preservation of the Union and therefore in the making of modern America.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of And There Was Light FINALIST FOR THE GILDER LEHRMAN LINCOLN PRIZE AND THE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST BOOK PRIZE FOR HISTORY Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. His colleagues were shocked when he volunteered for the Union army, but he was undeterred and later became known as one of the North’s greatest heroes: On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers. Despite being wounded at Petersburg—and told by two surgeons he would die—Chamberlain survived the war, going on to be elected governor of Maine four times and serve as president of Bowdoin College. How did a stuttering young boy come to be fluent in nine languages and even teach speech and rhetoric? How did a trained minister find his way to the battlefield? Award-winning historian Ronald C. White delves into these contradictions in this cradle-to-grave biography of General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, from his upbringing in rural Maine to his tenacious, empathetic military leadership and his influential postwar public service, exploring a question that still plagues so many veterans: How do you make a civilian life of meaning after having experienced the extreme highs and lows of war? Chamberlain is familiar to millions from Michael Shaara’s now-classic novel of the Civil War, The Killer Angels , and Ken Burns’s timeless miniseries The Civil War, but in this book , White captures the complex and inspiring man behind the hero . Heavily illustrated and featuring nine detailed maps, this gripping, impeccably researched portrait illuminates one of the most admired but least known figures in our nation’s bloodiest conflict.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780525510109","publication_date":"20241112","publisher":"Random House Publishing Group","slug":"on-great-fields","subtitle":"Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and His Fight to Save the Union","title":"On Great Fields"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil War Era","score":0.7771,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027250","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7541,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.753,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil War Era","score":0.7771,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027250","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7541,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.753,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO008000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Military Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO019000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in Education","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil War Era","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Civil War Era","score":0.7771,"slug":"civil-war-era"},{"label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7541,"slug":"civil-wars"},{"label":"U.S. Military History","score":0.753,"slug":"u-s-military-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Civil War Era","Good for readers interested in history","Good for readers who enjoy Civil War Era and Civil Wars."],"related_lists":[{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his027250-military-civil-wars-see-also-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877","title":"Military Civil Wars ( See Also United States Civil War (1850 1877 Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his027250-military-civil-wars-see-also-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877"},{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his036050-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877","title":"United States Civil War (1850 1877) Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his036050-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Tim McGrath"],"book_id":"9780593184394","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593184394.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","score":21.7359,"title":"Three Roads to Gettysburg","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593184394"},{"authors":["James M. 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