
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War book by Drew Gilpin Faust
By Drew Gilpin FaustThis Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War book by Drew Gilpin Faust
An illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War.
During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. An equivalent proportion of today’s population would be six million. This Republic of Suffering explores the impact of this enormous death toll from every angle: material, political, intellectual, and spiritual. The eminent historian Drew Gilpin Faust delineates the ways death changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation and its understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. She describes how survivors mourned and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the slaughter with its belief in a benevolent God, pondered who should die and under what circumstances, and reconceived its understanding of life after death.
Faust details the logistical challenges involved when thousands were left dead, many with their identities unknown, on the fields of places like Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. She chronicles the efforts to identify, reclaim, preserve, and bury battlefield dead, the resulting rise of undertaking as a profession, the first widespread use of embalming, the gradual emergence of military graves registration procedures, the development of a federal system of national cemeteries for Union dead, and the creation of private cemeteries in the South that contributed to the cult of the Lost Cause. She shows, too, how the war victimized civilians through violence that extended beyond battlefields—from disease, displacement, hardships, shortages, emotional wounds, and conflicts connected to the disintegration of slavery.
Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, and nurses, of northerners and southerners, slaveholders and freedpeople, of the most exalted and the most humble are brought together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War’s most fundamental and widely shared reality.
Were he alive today, This Republic of Suffering would compel Walt Whitman to abandon his certainty that the “real war will never get in the books.”
Book details
- Hardcover
- 368 pages
- English
- 037540404X
- 9780375404047
About Drew Gilpin Faust
drew gilpin faust is president of harvard university, where she also holds the lincoln professorship in history. dean of the radcliffe institute for advanc Read More about Drew Gilpin Faust
More Books By Drew Gilpin Faust
People who bought this also bought
Great Escape Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality book by Angus Deaton
New Book
She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Story of Heredity, Its Past Present and Future book by Carl Zimmer
New Book
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America book by Morgan Jerkins
New Book
The Art of Living With Chronic Illness, Pain, and Disability: A Practical and Spiritual Approach Inspired by the 12-Step Recovery Model book by Shellie Krick
Used Book
If Only I Knew: Gentle Reminders to Help You Treasure the people in your life
Like New
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
New Book
The Four Agreements : A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)
New Book
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't book by Jim Collins
New Book
Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World book by Jacqueline Novogratz
New Book
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion book by Gregory Boyle
New Book
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens: Simple Ways to Keep Your Cool in Stressful Times book by Richard Carlson
New Book
The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World book by Peter Frankopan
New Book
Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best book by Alan Stein Jr.
New Book
The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids book by Ryan Holiday
New Book
Women of the Vine: Inside the World of Women Who Make, Taste, and Enjoy Wine
Used Book
The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction book by Joseph Prince
New Book
God's Big Idea : Reclaiming God's Original Purpose for Your Life by Myles Munroe
New Book
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Nonprofits and the Social Sectors (featuring What Business Can Learn from Nonprofits by Peter F. Drucker)
New Book
Making Futures: Young Entrepreneurs in a Dynamic Africa book by Sangu Delle
New Book