# A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters

Robert E. Lee was a more complex and contradictory man than his iconic image suggests. In her new biography, historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor presents dozens of previously unpublished letters to draw a new portrait of Lee's beliefs, his military ability and the times he lived in. Pryor discussed and signed "Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters," in a program sponsored by the Center for the Book. Pryor uses Lee's newly discovered family letters as departure points for a series of surprising "historical excursions," telling his life story through an innovative blend of analysis, historiography and rich period detail. She looks into Lee's troubled childhood, the hardening of his anti-abolitionist views, his decision to join the South, his celebrated but controversial battlefield performance and his final wrenching years. The author also delves into lesser-known aspects of Lee's life, such as his pioneering role in engineering science, the fluctuation in his religious beliefs and the way he shaped his own leadership style.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2007
- By: Library Of Congress. Center For The Book
- Genres: Education, History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687847/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687847?play=1)