Reviews
Praise for Drew Gilpin Faust'sThis Republic of Suffering "Extraordinary . . . profoundly moving." -Geoffrey C. Ward,The New York Times Book Review "It's a shattering history of the war, focusing exclusively on death and dyinghow Americans prepared for death, imagined it, risked it, endured it and worked to understand it." -Jon Wiener,LA Times Book Review "Faust is particularly qualified to identify and explain the complex social and political implications of the changing nature of death as America's internecine conflict attained its full dimensions." -Ian Garrick Mason,San Francisco Chronicle "This Republic of Sufferingis one of those groundbreaking histories in which a crucial piece of the past, previously overlooked or misunderstood, suddenly clicks into focus." -Malcolm Jones,Newsweek "Faust is a first-rate scholar who yanks aside the usual veil of history to look narrowly at life's intimate level for new perspectives from the past. She focuses on ordinary lives under extreme duress, which makes for compelling reading." -Don Oldenburg,USA Today "The beauty and originality of Faust's book is that it shows how thoroughly the work of mourning became the business of capitalism, merchandised throughout a society." -Adam Gopnik,The New Yorker "Fascinating, innovative . . . Faust returns to the task of stripping from war any lingering romanticism, nobility or social purpose." -Eric Foner,The Nation "Having always kept the war in her own scholarly sights, Faust offers a compelling reassertion of its basic importance in society and politics alike." -Richard Wrightman Fox,Slate "[An] astonishing new book." -Adam Kirsch,The New York Sun "A moving work of social history, detailing how the Civil War changed perceptions and behaviors about death. . . . An illuminating study." -Kirkus "Penetrating . . . Faust exhumes a wealth of material . . . to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief." -Publishers Weekly "No other generation of Americans has encountered death on the scale of the Civil War generation.This Republic of Sufferingis the first study of how people in both North and South coped with this uniquely devastating experience. How did they mourn the dead, honor their sacrifice, commemorate their memory, and help their families? Drew Gilpin Faust's powerful and moving answers to these questions provide an important new dimension to our understanding of the Civil War." -James M. McPherson, author ofThis Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War "During the Civil War, death reached into the world of the living in ways unknown to Americans before or since. Drew Gilpin Faust follows the carnage in all its aspects, on and off the battlefield. Timely, poignant, and profound,This Republic of Sufferingdoes the real work of history, taking us beyond the statistics until we see the faces of the fallen and understand what it was to live amid such loss and pain." -Tony Horwitz,Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War "Drew Gilpin Faust has used her analytical and descriptive gifts to explore how men and women of the Civil War generation came to terms with the conflict's staggering human toll. Everyone who reads this book will come away with a far better under, Praise for Drew Gilpin Faust'sThis Republic of Suffering "Extraordinary . . . profoundly moving." -Geoffrey C. Ward,The New York Times Book Review "It's a shattering history of the war, focusing exclusively on death and dyinghow Americans prepared for death, imagined it, risked it, endured it and worked to understand it." -Jon Wiener,LA Times Book Review "Faust is particularly qualified to identify and explain the complex social and political implications of the changing nature of death as America's internecine conflict attained its full dimensions." -Ian Garrick Mason,San Francisco Chronicle "Faust excels in explaining the era's violent rhetoric and what went on in people's heads." -David Waldstreicher,The Boston Globe "This Republic of Sufferingis one of those groundbreaking histories in which a crucial piece of the past, previously overlooked or misunderstood, suddenly clicks into focus." -Malcolm Jones,Newsweek "Faust is a first-rate scholar who yanks aside the usual veil of history to look narrowly at life's intimate level for new perspectives from the past. She focuses on ordinary lives under extreme duress, which makes for compelling reading." -Don Oldenburg,USA Today "The beauty and originality of Faust's book is that it shows how thoroughly the work of mourning became the business of capitalism, merchandised throughout a society." -Adam Gopnik,The New Yorker "Fascinating, innovative . . . Faust returns to the task of stripping from war any lingering romanticism, nobility or social purpose." -Eric Foner,The Nation "Eloquent and imaginative, Ms. Faust's book takes a grim topichow America coped with the massive death toll from the Civil Warand makes it fresh and exciting. . . . [A] widely and justly praised scholarly history." -Adam Begley,New York Observer "This Republic of Sufferingis a harrowing but fascinating read." -Marjorie Kehe,The Christian Science Monitor "If you read only one book on the Civil War this year, make it this one." Kevin M. Levin,American History "Having always kept the war in her own scholarly sights, Faust offers a compelling reassertion of its basic importance in society and politics alike." -Richard Wrightman Fox,Slate "[An] astonishing new book." -Adam Kirsch,The New York Sun "A moving work of social history, detailing how the Civil War changed perceptions and behaviors about death. . . . An illuminating study." -Kirkus "Penetrating . . . Faust exhumes a wealth of material . . . to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief." -Publishers Weekly "No other generation of Americans has encountered death on the scale of the Civil War generation.This Republic of Sufferingis the first study of how people in both North and South coped with this uniquely devastating experience. How did they mourn the dead, honor their sacrifice, commemorate their memory, and help their families? Drew Gilpin Faust's powerful and moving answers to these questions provide an important new dimension to our understanding of the Civil War." -James M. McPherson, author ofThis Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War &am, Advance praise for Drew Gilpin Faust'sThis Republic of Suffering "A moving work of social history, detailing how the Civil War changed perceptions and behaviors about death. . . . An illuminating study." -Kirkus "Penetrating . . . Faust exhumes a wealth of material . . . to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief." -Publishers Weekly "No other generation of Americans has encountered death on the scale of the Civil War generation.This Republic of Sufferingis the first study of how people in both North and South coped with this uniquely devastating experience. How did they mourn the dead, honor their sacrifice, commemorate their memory, and help their families? Drew Gilpin Faust's powerful and moving answers to these questions provide an important new dimension to our understanding of the Civil War." -James M. McPherson, author ofThis Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War "During the Civil War, death reached into the world of the living in ways unknown to Americans before or since. Drew Gilpin Faust follows the carnage in all its aspects, on and off the battlefield. Timely, poignant, and profound,This Republic of Sufferingdoes the real work of history, taking us beyond the statistics until we see the faces of the fallen and understand what it was to live amid such loss and pain." -Tony Horowitz,Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War "Drew Gilpin Faust has used her analytical and descriptive gifts to explore how men and women of the Civil War generation came to terms with the conflict's staggering human toll. Everyone who reads this book will come away with a far better understanding of why the war profoundly affected those who lived through it." -Gary W. Gallagher, author ofThe Confederate War "Drew Gilpin Faust's brilliant new book,This Republic of Suffering, builds profoundly. In the end, one can only conclude, as she does, that the meaning of the Civil War, for its contemporaries, was tied up with/lay in death itself. Powerful, moving." -Stephanie McCurry, author ofMasters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, and the political culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country "Whitman was wrong; the real war did get into the books. This is a wise, informed, troubling book.This Republic of Sufferingdemolishes sentimentalism for the Civil War in a masterpiece of research, realism, and originality." -David W. Blight, author ofRace and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
