Book excerpt: Robert E. Lee, Patriot to the End briefly summarizes the case for reading the historical record of the military service of General Robert E. Lee with fresh eyes. One can see, from that novel perspective, that General Lee subsumed his tactical military genius to the strategic goal of preserving the truly civil union of North and South in the United States of America. The author, Stephen Thompson, leads readers on a brisk tour through the highlights of General Lees record to provide a perspective for this briefs main historical point. This brief, Robert E. Lee, Patriot to the End, gives its readers a compact and digestible summary of a premise and its supporting argument that can lead to seeing an old yet unsettled conflict from a fresh point of view.