GETTYSBURG

History is studied passively, moving backwards from conclusions, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who wrote and reads the introduction. Active histories--like this one--dramatize the facts as we know them by changing the ending. What if Lee had flanked the dug-in Union troops at Gettysburg? "General Longstreet, what is your proposal, suh?" asks Lee when Pete famously questions plans for Pickett's ruinous charge. In real life, Lee didn't listen. Meticulously researched, the book is intellectually gratifying. The realism is marred, however, by an antique, almost Roman, vision of glorious death. "My fault, all my fault," says Meade in his last charge. Tom Stechschulte gives a stunning performance, Southern and courtly in one passage, Northern and practical in the next. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]