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Jeff Shaara, the son of Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Shaara, and brother of author Lila Shaara, is an American New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction novels.

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, he holds a degree in Criminology from Florida State University.

At sixteen, Jeff ran a rare coin business which he first operated from his home, before moving to a retail store.

Upon moving to Tampa, he became one of the most renowned coin and precious-metals dealers in Florida.

However, when his father passed away in 1988, Jeff sold his business and took over the management of his father's estate.

His writing journey began after he was approached to write a prequel and sequel to his father’s book, The Killer Angels (1974), which had witnessed great success in both print and film.

Considering that Jeff had no prior writing experience, he has excelled in his writing career, becoming a three-time recipient of the American Library Association's "William Young Boyd Award" for Excellence in Military Fiction.

Jeff currently resides in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with his lovely wife Stephanie.

More about Jeff Shaara

Genre: Historical Fiction

Born: 1952

United States

Website: https://jeffshaara.com/

Non Series

  • Gone for Soldiers (2000)
  • To the Last Man (2004)
  • The Frozen Hours (2017)
  • To Wake the Giant (2020)
  • The Eagle's Claw (2021)
  • The Old Lion (2023)

Non-fiction

  1. Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground (2006)

American Revolutionary War

  1. Rise to Rebellion (2001)
  2. The Glorious Cause (2002)

Civil War, Western Theater Tetralogy

  1. A Blaze of Glory (2012)
  2. A Chain of Thunder (2013)
  3. The Smoke at Dawn (2014)
  4. The Fateful Lightning (2015)

Civil War: 1861-1865

  1. Gods and Generals (Book One) (1996)
  2. The Last Full Measure (Book Three) (1998)
  3. The Civil War Trilogy (1999)

Omnibus Books

  1. Two Novels of the Revolutionary War (Rise to Rebellion / The Glorious Cause) (2013)

Second World War

  1. The Rising Tide (2006)
  2. The Steel Wave (2008)
  3. No Less Than Victory (2009)
  4. The Final Storm (2011)
American Revolutionary War

Detailed book overview

Non Series

Gone for Soldiers

In March 1847, 8,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Vera Cruz, led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott-a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short tempered, vain, and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.

In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2000
ISBN: 978-0345427519
Publisher: Ballantine Books
To the Last Man

Spring 1916: the horror of a stalemate on Europe’s western front. France and Great Britain are on one side of the barbed wire, a fierce German army is on the other. Shaara opens the window onto the otherworldly tableau of trench warfare as seen through the eyes of a typical British soldier who experiences the bizarre and the horrible–a “Tommy” whose innocent youth is cast into the hell of a terrifying war.

In the skies, meanwhile, technology has provided a devastating new tool, the aeroplane, and with it a different kind of hero emerges–the flying ace. Soaring high above the chaos on the ground, these solitary knights duel in the splendor and terror of the skies, their courage and steel tested with every flight.

As the conflict stretches into its third year, a neutral America is goaded into war, its reluctant president, Woodrow Wilson, finally accepting the repeated challenges to his stance of nonalignment. Yet the Americans are woefully unprepared and ill equipped to enter a war that has become worldwide in scope.

The responsibility is placed on the shoulders of General John “Blackjack” Pershing, and by mid-1917 the first wave of the American Expeditionary Force arrives in Europe. Encouraged by the bold spirit and strength of the untested Americans, the world waits to see if the tide of war can finally be turned.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2004
ISBN: 978-0345461360
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Frozen Hours

June 1950. The North Korean army invades South Korea, intent on uniting the country under Communist rule. In response, the United States mobilizes a force to defend the overmatched South Korean troops, and together they drive the North Koreans back to their border with China.

But several hundred thousand Chinese troops have entered Korea, laying massive traps for the Allies. In November 1950, the Chinese spring those traps. Allied forces, already battling stunningly cold weather, find themselves caught completely off guard as the Chinese advance around the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.

A force that once stood on the precipice of victory now finds itself on the brink of annihilation. Assured by General Douglas MacArthur that they would be home by Christmas, the soldiers and Marines fight for their lives against the most brutal weather conditions imaginable—and an enemy that outnumbers them more than six to one.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0345549242
Publisher: Ballantine Books
To Wake the Giant

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt watches uneasily as the world heads rapidly down a dangerous path. The Japanese have waged an aggressive campaign against China, and they now begin to expand their ambitions to other parts of Asia. As their expansion efforts grow bolder, their enemies know that Japan’s ultimate goal is total conquest over the region, especially when the Japanese align themselves with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, who wage their own war of conquest across Europe.

Meanwhile, the British stand nearly alone against Hitler, and there is pressure in Washington to transfer America’s powerful fleet of warships from Hawaii to the Atlantic to join the fight against German U-boats that are devastating shipping. But despite deep concerns about weakening the Pacific fleet, no one believes that the main base at Pearl Harbor is under any real threat.

Told through the eyes of widely diverse characters, this story looks at all sides of the drama and puts the reader squarely in the middle.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-0593129647
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Eagle's Claw

Spring 1942. The United States is reeling from the blow the Japanese inflicted at Pearl Harbor. But the Americans are determined to turn the tide. The key comes from Commander Joe Rochefort, a little known “code breaker” who cracks the Japanese military encryption. With Rochefort’s astonishing discovery, Admiral Chester Nimitz will know precisely what the Japanese are planning.

But the battle to counter those plans must still be fought.

From the American side, the shocking conflict is seen through the eyes of Rochefort and Admiral Nimitz, as well as fighter pilot Lieutenant Percy “Perk” Baker and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Doug Ackroyd.

On the Japanese side, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is the mastermind. His key subordinates are Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, aging and infirm, and Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, a firebrand who has no patience for Nagumo’s hesitation. Together, these two men must play out the chess game designed by Yamamoto, without any idea that the Americans are anticipating their every move on the sea and in the air.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-0593414088
Publisher: Random House Large Print
The Old Lion

This book brings to life one of the most consequential figures in U.S. history - Theodore Roosevelt - peeling back the many-layered history of the man, and the country he personified.

From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, from the waning days of the rugged frontier of a young country to the emergence of a modern, industrial nation exerting its power on the world stage, Theodore Roosevelt embodied both the myth and reality of the country he loved and led.

From his upbringing in the rarefied air of New York society of the late 19th century to his time in rough-and-tumble world of the Badlands in the Dakotas, from his rise from political obscurity to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from national hero as the leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War to his accidental rise to the Presidency itself, Roosevelt embodied the complex, often contradictory, image of America itself.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2023
Ebook: B0B9KVJHJD
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Non-fiction

Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground

TRAVEL THROUGH A PIVOTAL TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Jeff Shaara, America’s premier Civil War novelist, gives a remarkable guided tour of the ten Civil War battlefields every American should visit: Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, New Market, Chickamauga, the Wilderness/Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg/Appomattox. Shaara explores the history, the people, and the places that capture the true meaning and magnitude of the conflict and provides

• engaging narratives of the war’s crucial battles

• intriguing historical footnotes about each site

• photographs of the locations–then and now

• detailed maps of the battle scenes

• fascinating sidebars with related points of interest

From Antietam to Gettysburg to Vicksburg, and to the many poignant destinations in between, Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields is the ideal guide for casual tourists and Civil War enthusiasts alike.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-0345464880
Publisher: Ballantine Books

American Revolutionary War

Rise to Rebellion

In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command—“Fire!”—as England’s peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred.

The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America’s most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history.

John Adams, the idealistic attorney devoted to the law, who rises to greatness by the power of his words...Ben Franklin, one of the most celebrated men of his time, the elderly and audacious inventor and philosopher who endures firsthand the hostile prejudice of the British government...Thomas Gage, the British general given the impossible task of crushing a colonial rebellion without starting an all-out war...George Washington, the dashing Virginian whose battle experience in the French and Indian War brings him the recognition that elevates him to command of a colonial army...and many other immortal names from the Founding Family of the colonial struggle—Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee— captured as never before in their full flesh-and-blood humanity.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2001
ISBN: 978-0345427540
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Glorious Cause

It was never a war in which the outcome was obvious. Despite their spirit and stamina, the colonists were outmanned and outfought by the brazen British army. General George Washington found his troops trounced in the battles of Brooklyn and Manhattan and retreated toward Pennsylvania.

With the future of the colonies at its lowest ebb, Washington made his most fateful decision: to cross the Delaware River and attack the enemy. The stunning victory at Trenton began a saga of victory and defeat that concluded with the British surrender at Yorktown, a moment that changed the history of the world.

The despair and triumph of America’s first great army is conveyed in scenes as powerful as any Shaara has written, a story told from the points of view of some of the most memorable characters in American history.

There is George Washington, the charismatic leader who held his army together to achieve an unlikely victory; Charles Cornwallis, the no-nonsense British general, more than a match for his colonial counterpart; Nathaniel Greene, who rose from obscurity to become the finest battlefield commander in Washington’s army; The Marquis de Lafayette, the young Frenchman who brought a soldier’s passion to America; and Benjamin Franklin, a brilliant man of science and philosophy who became the finest statesman of his day.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2002
ISBN: 978-0345427571
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Civil War, Western Theater Tetralogy

A Blaze of Glory

Spring 1862. The Confederate Army in the West teeters on the brink of collapse. General Albert Sidney Johnston is forced to abandon the critical city of Nashville and rally his troops in defense of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

Hot on Johnston’s trail are two of the Union’s best generals: Ulysses Grant and Don Carlos Buell. If their combined forces can crush Johnston’s army and capture the railroad, the war in the West likely will be over.

There’s just one problem: Johnston knows of the Union plans and is poised to launch an audacious surprise attack on Grant’s encampment—a small settlement in southwestern Tennessee anchored by a humble church named Shiloh.

Drawing on meticulous research, Jeff Shaara dramatizes the key decisions of the commanders on both sides of the conflict—and brings to life the junior officers, conscripts, and enlisted men who gave their all for the cause. With stunning immediacy, Shaara takes us inside the maelstrom of Shiloh as no novelist has before.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-0345527363
Publisher: Ballantine Books
A Chain of Thunder

In May 1863, after months of hard and bitter combat, Union troops under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at long last successfully cross the Mississippi River. They force the remnants of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton’s army to retreat to Vicksburg, burning the bridges over the Big Black River in its path. But after sustaining heavy casualties in two failed assaults against the rebels, Union soldiers are losing confidence and morale is low.

Grant reluctantly decides to lay siege to the city, trapping soldiers and civilians alike inside an iron ring of Federal entrenchments. Six weeks later, the starving and destitute Southerners finally surrender, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces on July 4—Independence Day—and marking a crucial turning point in the Civil War.

Drawing on comprehensive research and his own intimate knowledge of the Vicksburg Campaign, Jeff Shaara once again weaves brilliant fiction out of the ragged cloth of historical fact. From the command tents where generals plot strategy to the ruined mansions where beleaguered citizens huddle for safety, this is a panoramic portrait of men and women whose lives are forever altered by the siege.

On one side stand the emerging legend Grant, his irascible second William T. Sherman, and the youthful “grunt” Private Fritz Bauer; on the other, the Confederate commanders Pemberton and Joseph Johnston, as well as nineteen-year-old Lucy Spence, a civilian doing her best to survive in the besieged city.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0345527394
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Smoke at Dawn

Summer, 1863. The Federal triumph at Vicksburg has secured complete control of the Mississippi River from the Confederacy, cementing the reputation of Ulysses S. Grant. Farther east, the Federal army under the command of William Rosecrans captures the crucial rail hub at Chattanooga. But Rosecrans is careless, and while pursuing the Confederates, the Federal forces are routed in north Georgia at Chickamauga Creek.

Retreating in a panic back to Chattanooga, Rosecrans is pursued by the Confederate forces under General Braxton Bragg. Penned up, with their supply lines severed, the Federal army seems doomed to the same kind of defeat that plagued the Confederates at Vicksburg. But a disgusted Abraham Lincoln has seen enough of General Rosecrans.

Ulysses Grant is elevated to command of the entire theater of the war, and immediately replaces Rosecrans with General George Thomas. Grant gathers an enormous force, including armies commanded by Joseph Hooker and Grant’s friend, William T. Sherman. Grant’s mission is clear: Break the Confederate siege and destroy Bragg’s army.

Meanwhile, Bragg wages war as much with his own subordinates as he does with the Federals, creating dissension and disharmony in the Southern ranks, erasing the Confederate army’s superiority at exactly the wrong time.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-0345527424
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Fateful Lightning

November 1864: As the Civil War rolls into its fourth bloody year, the tide has turned decidedly in favor of the Union. A grateful Abraham Lincoln responds to Ulysses S. Grant’s successes by bringing the general east, promoting Grant to command the entire Union war effort, while William Tecumseh Sherman now directs the Federal forces that occupy all of Tennessee.

In a massive surge southward, Sherman conquers the city of Atlanta, sweeping aside the Confederate army under the inept leadership of General John Bell Hood. Pushing through northern Georgia, Sherman’s legendary March to the Sea shoves away any Rebel presence, and by Christmas 1864 the city of Savannah falls into the hands of “Uncle Billy.” Now there is but one direction for Sherman to go. In his way stands the last great hope for the Southern cause, General Joseph E. Johnston.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-0345549211
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Civil War: 1861-1865

Gods and Generals (Book One)

In this brilliantly written epic novel, Jeff Shaara traces the lives, passions, and careers of the great military leaders from the first gathering clouds of the Civil War.

Here is Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a hopelessly by-the-book military instructor and devout Christian who becomes the greatest commander of the Civil War; Winfield Scott Hancock, a captain of quartermasters who quickly establishes himself as one of the finest leaders of the Union army; Joshua Chamberlain, who gives up his promising academic career and goes on to become one of the most heroic soldiers in American history; and Robert E. Lee, never believing until too late that a civil war would ever truly come to pass.

Profound in its insights into the minds and hearts of those who fought in the war, Gods and Generals creates a vivid portrait of the soldiers, the battlefields, and the tumultuous times that forever shaped the nation.

The complete series consists of:

1. Gods and Generals (1996) by Jeff Shaara

2. The Killer Angels (1974) by Michael Shaara

3. The Last Full Measure (1998) by Jeff Shaara

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 1996
ISBN: 978-0345409577
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Last Full Measure (Book Three)

The Last Full Measure tells the epic story of the events following the Battle of Gettysburg and brings to life the final two years of the Civil War. Jeff Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant—complicated, heroic, and deeply troubled men.

For Lee and his Confederate forces, Gettysburg has been an unspeakable disaster, but he is determined to fight to the bitter end; he faces Grant, the decisive, hard-nosed leader the Union army so desperately needs in order to turn the tide of the war.

From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing seize of Petersburg to Lee’s epoch-making surrender at Appomattox, Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure.

The complete series consists of:

1. Gods and Generals (1996) by Jeff Shaara

2. The Killer Angels (1974) by Michael Shaara

3. The Last Full Measure (1998) by Jeff Shaara

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 1998
ISBN: 978-0345425485
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Civil War Trilogy

Michael Shaara reinvented the war novel with his Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. Jeff Shaara continued his father’s legacy with a series of centuries-spanning New York Times bestsellers. Together at last in eBook form, this volume assembles three Civil War novels from America’s first family of military fiction: Gods and Generals, The Killer Angels, and The Last Full Measure.

Gods and Generals traces the lives, passions, and careers of the great military leaders—Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock, Joshua Chamberlain—from the gathering clouds of war. The Killer Angels re-creates the fight for America’s destiny in the Battle of Gettysburg, the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history. And The Last Full Measure brings to life the final two years of the Civil War, chasing the escalating conflict between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant—complicated, heroic, and deeply troubled men—through to its riveting conclusion at Appomattox.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 1999
ISBN: 978-0345433725
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Omnibus Books

Two Novels of the Revolutionary War (Rise to Rebellion / The Glorious Cause)

Rise to Rebellion

In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command—“Fire!”—as England’s peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred.

The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America’s most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history.

The Glorious Cause

It was never a war in which the outcome was obvious. Despite their spirit and stamina, the colonists were outmanned and outfought by the brazen British army. General George Washington found his troops trounced in the battles of Brooklyn and Manhattan and retreated toward Pennsylvania.

With the future of the colonies at its lowest ebb, Washington made his most fateful decision: to cross the Delaware River and attack the enemy. The stunning victory at Trenton began a saga of victory and defeat that concluded with the British surrender at Yorktown, a moment that changed the history of the world.

The despair and triumph of America’s first great army is conveyed in scenes as powerful as any Shaara has written, a story told from the points of view of some of the most memorable characters in American history.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B00AP2VTIU
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Second World War

The Rising Tide

Utilizing the voices of the conflict’s most heroic figures, some immortal and some unknown, Jeff Shaara tells the story of America’s pivotal role in World War II: fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific while standing side-by-side with her British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war against Germany. As British and American forces strike into the soft underbelly of Hitler’s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus.

In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the Battle of Normandy.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-0345461384
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Steel Wave

General Dwight Eisenhower once again commands a diverse army that must find its single purpose in the destruction of Hitler’s European fortress. His primary subordinates, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery, must prove that this unique blend of Allied armies can successfully confront the might of Adolf Hitler’s forces, who have already conquered Western Europe.

On the coast of France, German commander Erwin Rommel fortifies and prepares for the coming invasion, acutely aware that he must bring all his skills to bear on a fight his side must win. But Rommel’s greatest challenge is to strike the Allies on his front, while struggling behind the lines with the growing insanity of Adolf Hitler, who thwarts the strategies Rommel knows will succeed.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Jesse Adams, a no-nonsense veteran of the 82nd Airborne, parachutes with his men behind German lines into a chaotic and desperate struggle. And as the invasion force surges toward the beaches of Normandy, Private Tom Thorne of the 29th Infantry Division faces the horrifying prospects of fighting his way ashore on a stretch of coast more heavily defended than the Allied commanders anticipate–Omaha Beach.

From G.I. to general, this story carries the reader through the war’s most crucial juncture, the invasion that altered the flow of the war, and, ultimately, changed history.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2008
ISBN: 978-0345461407
Publisher: Ballantine Books
No Less Than Victory

After the success at Normandy, the Allied commanders are confident that the war in Europe will soon be over. But in December 1944, in the Ardennes Forest, the Germans launch a ruthless counteroffensive that begins the Battle of the Bulge—the last gasp by Hitler’s forces and some of the most brutal fighting of the war. 

The Führer will spare nothing—not even German lives—to preserve his twisted vision of a “Thousand Year Reich,” but stout American resistance defeats the German thrust, and by spring 1945 the German army faces total collapse. With Russian troops closing in on Berlin, Hitler commits suicide.

As the Americans sweep through the German countryside, they encounter the worst of Hitler’s crimes, the concentration camps, and young GIs find themselves absorbing firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0345497932
Publisher: Ballantine Books
The Final Storm

With the war in Europe winding down in the spring of 1945, the United States turns its vast military resources toward a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa.

The three-month battle in the Pacific theater will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire Second World War, as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender.

Meanwhile, stateside, a different kind of campaign is being waged in secret: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city.

As President Harry S Truman mulls his options and Japanese physician Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.

Author: Jeff Shaara
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0345497956
Publisher: Ballantine Books