Synopsis
In this illuminating Civil War history, Drew Gilpin Faust examines a little-studied aspect of the war: the effects that death and dying (and killing) had on soldiers, their kin, and society as a whole. The visible presence of the dead bodies (often in damaged or mangled form, gravely wounded or decomposed), the challenges of disposal, and the often futile efforts by families to identify or even find the lost, all had profound effects on survivors. Faust explores how religion played a major role in people's views on death, and on the war and its carnage. She provides fascinating accounts of the rise of new institutions and practices, including undertaking and embalming, as well as private and national burial grounds. And she tells how families sometimes hired searchers to scour battlefields to find or report on the fate of their lost loved ones. Painful to read at times, THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING wipes away stale views of a war that ripped open people's hearts, as it confronts, in depth, the profound impact of the loss of over 620,0000 individuals. THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING was a finalist for both the 2008 National Book Award in Nonfiction and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for history, and was selected as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2008-01-08 |
| Size | | Length: | 346 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 7.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 24.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
The author of Mothers of Invention assesses the devastating impact of the enormous carnage of the Civil War on every aspect of American life from a material, political, intellectual, cultural, social, and spiritual perspective, from the logistical challenges of burying the battlefield dead to the evolution of a federal system of national cemeteries. 35,000 first printing.
Industry Reviews
"A moving work of social history...."
(10/15/2007)
"[A] work by turns fascinating, innovative and obsessively morbid...stripping away from war any lingering romanticism, nobility or social purpose."
(01/28/2008)
"Extraordinary....[Gilpin's] account...is too richly detailed and covers too much ground to be summarized easily. She overlooks nothing....[A] profoundly moving book."
(01/27/2008)
"THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING tells a story that most Civil War buffs...probably don't know or appreciate....[It] is a disturbing book, profane and profound."
(02/03/2008)
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