The Role Of Tourism In Our Modern World

The Role Of Tourism In Our Modern World Tourism may be further defined as the movement of people away from their normal place of residence (J. Christopher Halloway, 1998) This definition describes tourism as an action to see something new or different from daily life. The tourism industry is constantly growing and the economics of some countries are mainly based on it. Tourism can be seen in association with a lot of different factors like visitors attractions and hospitality. This essay will deal with the multi-disciplinary nature of tourism as well as the Travel and Transport and especially on the railways industry. Furthermore will it focus on the history and the current practice in the railway industry. Tourism is multi-disciplinary. One of its natures are Visitors attractions. J. Christophe Holloway and Neil Taylor described Visitor Attractions as followed. So we must accept that no clear definition exists for the term. It is easiest just to accept that any site that appeals to people sufficiently to encourage them to travel there in order to visit it should be judged a `visitor attraction`. (J. Christopher Holloway and Neil Taylor,2006) They can be categorized by factors like being built with a touristic purpose or being built with no touristic background. Examples of attractions which had during their construction no touristic purpose are The Eiffel Tower in the Paris and the Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen. These attractions attract in our modern world millions of tourist to Paris or Copenhagen. These examples are the best proves that attractions can be build without a touristic hidden thought. The tourists visiting a attraction need an accommodation in case they are not day-tripper. The accommodation sector can be divided in the non-profit and the profit sector. The non-profit includes the visiting friends and relatives, which are still very important for tourism even though they are not spending any money on accommodation as tourists will still spend money throughout their stay in the area of interest. This category also includes hostels which do not try to make a profit. The second sector has to make a profit to survive. This sectors comprises BB, hotels and campings. Transportation is also part of the tourism because it brings the tourists to attractions and accommodation. The most common transportation method is nowadays the plane. Other ways which are to consider are the coach or the train. The train was over the last decades suffering with falling numbers of passengers but seems now to be on the right track. Water-borne transport can be seen as a form of transportation which includes ferries or as a place of relaxation also on ocean liners which is getting more and more popular in the recent years. Travel trading changed in the last few years. Travel agencies are used to be the place where every tourist has to book his holiday. In our modern society, a lot of people are using the internet for bookings. They leave the local travel agent out and book their holiday directly by the tour operator or by the coach company online. The travel agents reacted by creating online platforms as Expedia.co.uk which are in direct competition to tour operators. Every holiday booking saves the workplace of several employees working in the travel industry. The money spend, has also an effect on the local economy as an the travel destination. An example, which illustrates this, is a holiday booked over the internet in the UK. One the hand, the tour operator or the online travel agency benefits in their UK head office. On the other hand, the local population at the destination profits from it. This example shows that people all over are making profit from holiday or a travel booked. The historic development of the travel and transport sector is quite impressive. It all started when people from Egyptian were travelling to visit other cities, their culture and architecture. Unfortunately was the end of the Roman Empire at the same time the end of travel in his earliest form. People had to wait till the 16th century before starting travelling again(?). People at that time had tree possibilities to travel. One of them was walking, which was dedicated to poor people. The second one was riding a horse which was for richer people. Last but not least, carrier wagons or a litter were the other possibilities to travel. In the 19th century was a big change for the travel and transport industry as it resulted in a revolution for this industry. In the early part of the century, the invention of the railway had a great impact on travelling. The time of travel was reduced massively and people were able to travel in less than 10 days from London to Edinburgh(Quote). The first r ailway segment was opened in the UK in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington, from then on a lot of different train routes were opened in the upcoming years all over the world. The last great line was opened 1903 in Russia between Moscow and Vladivostok. The number of passenger was growing. The railway was much more comfortable and faster than the ordinary travel by road or on canal. Their success was created in a short period of time because of its reliability and was soon the most important method of transport. Thomas Cook was involved in the success of the train due to his usage of the railway as a way to bring tourists to their holiday destinations. Later, in the early 19th century the private railway companies were not able to handle the enormous costs. Most of the companies were in serious financial trouble. The only solution to save these companies was the involvement of the governments. Most of the countries in Western Europe were so dependent from their national railways com panies that they were not able to afford the bankruptcies of these companies. The trouble for the railways companies was not over after their nationalization. The development of new transport possibilities after the Second World War like the plane brought the railway industry in new trouble. In the 1960ties more and more people were using coaches and their private car to go on holiday. The railway industry had no appropriated answer to these new ways of travel and followed their same old strategy. Nowadays, the railway industry changed a lot . At the end of the 20th century most of the railways services all over Europe were denationalized. The private owners made them more competitive. The denationalization was indeed good for the industry but mainly for the customer because prices get more competitive. Todays marketing concepts like party trains from London to the French Alps and discounts for people over 55 are used to attract people and to persuade them to travel with trains. A major trend can be seen all over the world to use high speed trains like the TGV and the ICE in Europe and the Shinkasen in Japan. The railway industry is catching up with new features to make the journey more comfortable for their passengers. In todays world passengers are able to obtain WIFI connections and audio entertainment services. These features are currently spreading in different forms of transport but are not available on all routes when it comes to for exapmle WIFI connection in trains. Nevertheless will WIFI be the norm in a few years time as well as video screens in the backseat with possibilities to game or to watch videos during your travel. The railway stations are not only placse of leaving and arriving trains but they are getting more and more places which have shops in it. (Mintal ,2008) One of the examples to illustrate this statement can be found in Scotland more preciously in Aberdeen. The shopping Centre gives the possibility to go from the centre itself to the railway station. Another example is the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin where you can find all sort of shops. The railway industry is getting more and more innovative to attract and to persuade more people to see trains as an alternative to coaches, planes or cars. Another trend, which is getting more and more popular, is the nostalgia of the trains. Alone in the UK there are several old trains running regularly as the Scotsman. The travel time varies from only a few hours to several days like The Ghan in Australia which is travelling between Melbourne and Sydney. These trains are normally extremely luxurious and are targeting old people. There are three major trends in the future. One trend is to have high-speed trains which have a lot of multimedia features. Another future ambition is to operate trains on historical routes with all desirable luxury amenities. Currently the most recent trend is to convert normal railway stations to a sort of shopping centres. The travel industry changed over the last years. They changed with new possibilities as the world wide web. The travel industry is in a permanent change to be up-to-date and to come up with new ideas. The railway industry, which suffered over the last four decades due to mismanagement and falling passenger numbers, also changed. Their denationalization had a positive effect on the whole industry which can be seen every day. As it was already mentioned earlier on, the industry is getting more innovative to catch up their arrears to other industries like the airline industry and the coach industry.

The Causes of Aggression :: The Frustration-Aggression Model

Aggression is difficult to define, it is a complex phenomenon, and depending upon the context the term can be made to carry either positive or negative connotations, it can be attacking behavior that may be both self-protective and self-assertive or to the infliction of injury toward oneself or toward others, to the total destruction of others. Is aggression biologically determined or the product of learning and environmental influences? This essay, will consider instinctive theory, the frustration - aggression hypothesis, and social learning theory. It should then be possible to draw a conclusion to see if any or all of the theories discussed are the cause of aggression. Brain disorders, hormonal and chemical imbalances, environmental factors, such as heat, noise, air pollution and overcrowding, although contribute to the causes of aggression will not be discussed during the course of this essay. No universally adopted definition of aggression exists, for the purpose of this discussion; the definition of Gross will be used. Gross defines aggression as: - "The intentional infliction of some form of harm on others" (Gross page 444) Freud proposed that aggression is an instinctive biological urge. According to Freud this instinct, is made up of the libido (pleasure) and "Thanatos" (the death wish) (pain). This basic instinct is present in the Id from birth, at first the aggression is relatively uncontrolled, but with t he development of the Ego and superego it becomes channeled into socially acceptable behavior If these impulses are not released periodically in safe ways, they soon reach dangerous levels capable of producing acts of violence. Sometimes it is released in the form of physical or verbal abuse against another, (where the anger is displaced onto another). Sometimes the aggressive impulse is turned inward and produces self - punishment action, even suicide. The best that can be hoped for, according to Freud, is that aggressive impulses will be "channeled into socially acceptable forms." such as football, sport etc. (Bernstein et al page 715). However, this theory does not explain why some people are aggressive and others are not, and if aggression is dissipated into sport, why is there football violence and violence at other sporting events? Lorenz, like Freud believed that aggressive energy builds up in the individual, and eventually has to be discharged in some way. Lorenz's states that aggression is the "fighting instinct" in man, and that man is naturally aggressive. This instinct developed during the course of evolution because it yielded many benefits, for example, fighting serves to disperse populations over a wide area, ensuring maximum use of resources.

Cost Accounting Essay

Questions arise as to why ABC implementation is successful in certain companies and fails in others. Based on the contingency theory, researchers have argued that the reasons for different degrees of ABC success could be due to the different contextual factors faced by each firm. These have led researchers to recognize assessing factors that influence ABC success implementation as an important research area. The following are among the research that have been carried out to examine factors that influence ABC success: Anderson [18]; Shield [3]; McGowan and Klammer [19]; Krumwiede [20]; and Anderson and Young [21] This article has two main objectives; the first objective is to identify research gaps based on the revision of previous research and the second objective is to propose theoretical research framework for current research. This article is organized as follows: Section II presents a discussion of selected articles related to factors influencing ABC implementation and gaps or limitations of previous studies and suggestions for current research are stated in the section III and IV. The framework for current research is provided in section V, Section VI defines each research variable and the final section presents the conclusion. II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH In this section, selected ABC implementation empirical 144 Abstract—In today’s advanced manufacturing and competitive environment, accurate costing information is crucial for all the kinds of businesses, such as manufacturing firms, merchandizing firms, and service firms. Argued to be superior to the traditional volume-based costing system, Activity-Based Costing system (ABC) has increasingly attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers alike as one of the strategic tools to aid managers for better decision making. The benefits of ABC system and its impacts on companies’ performance have motivated numerous empirical studies on ABC system and it is considered as one of the most-researched management accounting areas in developed countries. Previous research on ABC have examined pertinent issues related to ABC implementation such as the levels of ABC adoption in various countries, the reasons for implementing ABC, the problems related to ABC and the critical success factors influencing ABC. This paper reviews the research on ABC carried out within the last decade, from 1995-2008, and from the review research gaps are identified. Specifically, this paper examines the selection of factors influencing successful ABC implementation, variables used by previous research and the definitions and operationalization of the variables. The review reveals that past research concentrated mainly on behavioral, organizational, and technical variables as the main determinants of ABC success but very little research have been done to examine the roles of organizational culture and structure. Based on the research gaps identified, a research framework for future research is provided. Index Terms—Advanced Manufacturing Activity-Based Costing, ABC Success Environment, I. INTRODUCTION In today’s competitive and continually changing business environment, firms need to be vigilant of the impacts of the changes in the business environment and devise appropriate strategies to survive and prosper. Advancements in manufacturing and communication technologies have drastically changed the ways businesses conduct their activities. Adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies such as robotics and computerized manufacturing have resulted in significant changes in the manufacturing cost structure which have led academics and practitioners to argue that the traditional costing methods are no longer sufficient within this new manufacturing environment [1] (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987). This had resulted in the change from the traditional volume-based cost model to new costing methods such as Activity Based Costing (ABC) [2]. Due to its ability in providing more accurate costing information and enhancing firms’ performance, ABC is International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X studies, which spanned 1995-2008 periods, were collected from four prominent refereed accounting research journals, in management accounting field: Journal of Management Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research and British Accounting Review. Factors used by previous research to investigate the effect on ABC success implementation are summarized, and stage of ABC implementation also is outlined. A. Technical Variables Early studies of ABC adoption and implementation undertaken by previous researchers concentrated on technical factors, such as identification of main activities, selection of cost drivers, problem in accumulating cost data. Example of these research are Cooper [9], Morrow and Connelly [22]. However, technical factors alone may not be adequate to explain the factors influencing ABC success implementation. Cooper et al. [23] argued that the key problem during ABC implementation stage is that companies only focus on technical factors. They suggested that to make ABC implementation more effective, non-technical factors such as involvement of non-accounting in ABC implementation process, top management championship, adequate training program to employees about the objectives and benefits of ABC should be emphasized as well. Similar opinions were expressed by Shield [3] and Shields and McEwen [14]. Shield (1995) found no significant relationship between technical factors and ABC success. Shields and McEwen [14] also highlighted that sole emphasis on the architectural and software design of ABC systems leads to the failure of ABC implementation. Therefore many researchers have suggested that new variables should be considered to investigate factors influencing ABC success. B. Contextual, Behavioral and Organizational Variables Recognizing the research gaps in identifying factors that may affect ABC success, academicians shifted their focuses from technical factors to other variables, such as contextual, behavioral and organizational, culture, as well as organizational structure. Anderson [18] conducted a longitudinal investigation of ABC process in General Motor (GM) from a period of 1986 to 1993. In his research, he examined the effects of organizational variables and contextual variables, and segmented ABC implementation into four major stages, initiation, adoption, adaptation and acceptance. He found that organizational factors, such as top management support and training for the ABC system affected various stages of ABC significantly, while contextual variables, such as competition, relevance to managers’ decisions and compatibility with existing systems produced different degree of impact on different stages of ABC. Shield [3] examined the relationships between diversity of behavioral, organizational and technical factors and the success of ABC implementation. She employed Shield and Young’s [24] framework and summarized behavioral and organizational variables as top management support, adequate resources, training, link ABC system to performance evaluation and compensation, non-accounting ownership, link ABC to competitive strategies as well as clarity of ABC objectives. She found that top management support, linkage to quality initiatives and to personal performance measure (pay/appraisal), implementation of training and resource adequacy were the significant predictors in explaining ABC success. She also found that technical variables were not associated with ABC success. Shield’s findings are supported by other researchers, such as Shield and McEwen [14], who argued that a significant cause for unsuccessful implementations of ABC of several companies could be due to the emphasis of architectural and software design of the ABC system and less attention given to behavioral and organizational issues, which were identified by Shield [3]. Krumwiede and Roth [25] also stated that barriers of ABC implementation can be overcome if firms could give importance to behavioral and rganizational variables identified by Shield [3]. Similarly, Norris [26] agreed with Shield’s [3] findings that the association between ABC success and behavioral and organizational variables is stronger than with technical variables. She further highlighted that the impact of behavioral, organizational and technical should be focused at individual level. McGowan and Klammer [19] conducted a survey of 53 employees from 4 targeted sites in the U. S. o examine whether employees’ satisfaction levels are associated with ABC implementation by They also measured their perceptions of the factors associated with the degree of satisfaction, such as top management support; the degree of involvement in the implementation process; objectives clearly stated; objectives shared; training; linkage to performance evaluation system; adequate resources; information quality and preparer over user. Their results indicated that employees’ satisfaction with ABC implementation was positively related with clarity of objectives and quality of ABC information. Gosselin [15] carried out a survey of 161 Canadian manufacturing companies to examine the effects of strategic posture and organizational structure on adoption and implementation of general forms of Activity-based costing. He segmented the ABC implementation stage into adoption and implementation. The research findings showed that a prospector strategy was associated with manager decision to adopt ABC, while centralization and formalization were significantly associated with ABC success implementation. Krumwiede [20] surveyed U. S manufacturing firms to study how contextual factors, such as the potential for cost distortion or size of firms; organizational factors, such as top management support, training or non-accounting ownership, affect each stage of ABC implementation process. His findings showed that the different factors affected the various stages of implementation of ABC and the degree of importance of each factor varies according to the stage of implementation. Contextual factors, such as usefulness of cost information, IT existence, less task uncertainty and large organizations were related to ABC adoption. Moreover, organizational factors, such as top management support, non-accounting ownership, and implementation training affect ABC success implementation. 145 International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X In another study by Anderson and Young [21], the relationship between organizational and contextual variables, such as organizational structures, task characteristics, management support, information technology and ABC success was examined. The result confirmed the importance of organizational factors (top management support and adequacy resources) during the ABC implementation stage. In South Africa, Sartorius et al. [27] carried out a mail survey to investigate the effect of organizational factors such as top management, adequate resources, coherence with organizational goals and strategy on ABC success. They found top management support and resources were the crucial factors in explaining ABC success. In the UK, Innes and Mitchell [4] and [12] surveyed the extent of ABC adoption among largest firms. The study aimed to find out factors influencing ABC success by using behavioral and organizational variables, and it was found that top management influenced ABC success significantly. In another study conducted by Khalid [28] using a questionnaire survey among the largest 100 firms in Saudi Arabia, ABC adoption was found to be positively related to diversity of products. In Malaysia, Ruhanita et al. [29] conducted a mail survey and a case study to examine that factors influencing ABC success, especially at adoption stage. They found the significant factors were cost distortion, decision usefulness, information technology and organizational factors. In addition, the findings showed that decision usefulness, top management support, link ABC to performance measure and compensation influenced the ABC success adoption significantly. A case study of one Chinese manufacturing firm was carried by Lana and Fei [30] in China. Their research aimed to examine some key success factors pertinent to ABC implementation within Chinese organizational and cultural setting. The research findings showed that top management support, hierarchical and communication structure and high proportion of dedicated professionals were the significant factors in determining ABC success implementation. Majid et al. [7] used a case study approach to describe the process of ABC implementation in a Malaysian service company and a Malaysian manufacturing company. In this research, they categorized ABC implementation into initiation and adoption, design, implementation and use of information. The purpose of the research was to find out the problems faced during ABC implementation, He found that the factors determining ABC success were top management support, suitable ABC software, and finally, ensuring that all affected employees understand and participate in the ABC implementation stage. And they also found that at different stages of ABC, the dominant factors influencing ABC success were also different. Colin et al. [31] adopted behavioral and organizational factors summarized by Shield (1995) to examine factors influencing the adoption and degree of success of ABC systems and determinants of that success. In their research, the targeted research population was manufacturing and service firms in the UK. They found that top management support, non-accounting ownership, adequate training provided to ABC determined the ABC success. Besides behavioral, organizational and technical variable, some researchers also indicated that the dimensions of national cultures could affect the level of ABC success [32, 33]. Brewer [32] used Hofstede’s taxonomy of work-related cultural values to examine the relationship between national culture and Activity-Based Costing system. In the study, Hofstede [34]’s work was applied to the case of Harris Semiconductor (HS), which has implemented ABC at plants in Malaysia and the USA. The results showed that the level of ABC success in Malaysia was higher than that of U. S due to high-power-distance and collectivist cultures in Malaysia. In addition, Supitcha and Frederick [33] also included national culture’s dimension into framework in a case study of one Thai state-owned enterprise’s budgeting system. They found that due to cultural differences, modifications were required when the organizations in Thailand tried to implement ABC system in Thai environment. Apart from national culture, corporate culture factors were also tested by prior research. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [17] conducted a study to investigate the relationship between the extent of ABC adoption and the organizational variables of size and decision usefulness of cost information and business unit culture. In their research, data were collected by a mail survey questionnaire and samples were randomly selected from business units in Australia. The research finding showed significant relationships between ABC adoption and decision usefulness, cultural dimensions of outcome orientation and tight verse loose control. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [16] examined the relationship between success of activity management practices and organizational factors (top management support, training, link to performance evaluation and compensation, and link to quality initiatives), and organizational culture (outcome orientation, team orientation, attention to detail, as well as innovation). They adopted a survey questionnaire method on randomly chosen business units in Australia. The findings showed that two organizational factors (top management support, link to quality initiatives) explained the variations in success of activity management practices, such as ABC, and outcome orientation and attention to detail of organizational culture were associated with ABC success. They also stressed that compared with organizational culture, organizational factors had stronger associations with the ABC.

Killer Angels By Michael Shaara - 850 Words

In the Pulitzer Prize winning civil war novel Killer Angels, Michael Shaara covers five days of the historic battle between the Northern and Southern United States at Gettysburg. Both the North and the South fought for freedom, although they did not have equivalent definitions of freedom. The North and the South were unwavering in their beliefs and their hope for a better United States, but what the two butted heads the most on was slavery. The South was a primarily agrarian region which relied heavily on the agriculture of crops like cotton and sugarcane, both of which required intense manual labor, unlike the North who was more so industrialized; however, as William Preston said, it was not cotton that was â€Å"the south’s king† but it was slavery that made them so prosperous. The South relied on slavery because having many workers to tend to these cash crops without having to pay them saved farmers and plantation owner’s money that they could use to buy more slaves that put out more work leading to more land for more crops, or to have more money to pay their taxes. Many Southerners like William Preston thought that owning other people was their divine right as white men. The Civil War was started over the North and South’s conflicting views on whether they had the â€Å"civil† right to own or not own slaves. The Northern and Southern states developed themselves much differently than one another because of their agrarian versus industrialized economy. As the states developed theyShow MoreRelatedThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1634 Words   |  7 PagesPulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Shaara, the author of The Killer Angels, was born on June 23, 1928 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was an author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. Although writing was his passion, Shaara was very athletically successful in high school, winning more awards than any other student in the history of the school for sports such as basketball, track and baseball. He acquired a skill in boxing, and of the 18 matches Shaara fought as a young man, heRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1290 Words   |  6 Pages The Killer Angels Essay â€Å"There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.† Stated by Abraham Lincoln, this quote embodies the essence of war, its tragic character and unfortunate occasional necessity. Accordingly, the outcome of war and its battles is often determined by the attitudes of the leaders of the opposing sides, including their causes for the willingness to fight and to be fought. Such was the case with the Battle of GettysburgRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1521 Words   |  7 PagesThe book The Killer Angels was published in 1975 by the Ballatine Booksand was written by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels is a historic novel about the time of the American Civil War, more specifically The Battle of Gettysburg. Shaara wrote this historical masterpiece with the sole purpose of letting the reader know exactly how the war was for the men actually putting their lives on the line to get this great country of America to the stature it is today. In order to accomplish his goal of creatingRead MoreThe Killer Angel By Michael Shaara1248 Words   |  5 Pages The Killer Angel is a book elaborating on the history of the American civil war authored by Michael Shaara. The book has gained popularity among American citizens as it covers one of the deadliest battles in American history that took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, hence the title of the battle of Gettysburg (Shaara 5). The crash involved two major groups, the Confederacy, and the Union. The Confederacy constituted of seven secessionist states from the South who advocated forRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1947 Words   |  8 Pagesthe dueling North and South together to the small town of Gettysburg and on the threshold of splitting the Union. Gettysburg was as close as the United States got to Armageddon and The Killer Angels gives this full day-to-day account of the battle that shaped America’s future. Michael Shaara author of â€Å"The Killer Angels,† tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of generals Robert E. Lee, Joshua Chamberlain, James Longstreet, and John Buford, and the other men involved in the actionRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1117 Words   |  5 Pages Michael Shaara’s 1974 historical novel, The Killer Angels, covers the story of the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg that also features maps for visualization. The format of the story is well organized. It begins with a Foreword, which describes in great detail the armies and soldiers involved in the battle. It follows up with four sections and within each section there are chapters that are written in chronological order, covering the events between Monday, June 29, 1863 and Friday, July 3Read MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara Essay1255 Words   |  6 Pages In the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, the story is told from the perspective of the men that fought in the war of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania on July 1863. We are able to see both sides of the combatants, their struggles they faced, friendships acquired, losses, personal stories and their views. In history we only learn the superficial information of how it occurred in the battle and the outcome of it, but we do not know how it happened and how much effort it took to fight in thatRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1123 Words   |  5 PagesThe Killer Angels Novel written by Michael Shaara describes the Gettysburg battle from the perspective of Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, various soldiers from both sides, and other men who fought in the battle. This author makes the reader go back in time and actually makes the reader depict the circumstances, and situations that soldiers and generals faced. This Novel makes the reader know that both sides were eager to win, and bring this bloodshed to an end. This amazing Novel shows how neighborRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara852 Words   |  4 PagesThe Killer Angels by Michael Shaara was not just a fiction novel, it was a story of a man who actually saw the battlefield of Gettysburg and learned about the battle and its importance. When he returned from the battle sight he decided to write a novel based on his experience there. Instead of creating fictional characters he used the names and experiences he had directly with the main characters of the novel. Not only did Shaara study and review letters, documents and journal enteries of the menRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1206 Words   |  5 PagesShawn Gacy American Lit. Mrs. Moyer September 11, 2015 Summer Reading The book I chose to read over the summer was the book The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate army, and the Union army, fought the largest battle of the American Civil War. When the battle ended, fifty one thousand men were KIA (Killed In Action), wounded, or MIA (Missing in Action). All the characters in this book are based