The thing about Robert E. Lee is that he’s practically the poster child for what a general is supposed to look like. The trim white beard, the noble brow and piercing gaze, the way he sat erect upon his famous horse, Traveller. The aura the man projected was noble, upright, almost saintly. But as Robert E. Lee, a documentary being broadcast Jan. 3 on PBS’ American Experience suggests, he was something else entirely: a reactionary slave owner whose overweening ambition helped destroy his homeland and kill a generation of young men in the process. Guaranteed not to warm the cockles of ... Read More
