DREW GILPIN FAUST was president of Harvard University, where she also holds the Lincoln Professorship in History. Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2001 to 2007, she came to Harvard after twenty-five years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of five previous books, including Mothers of Invention- Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery Craven Prize. She and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Extraordinary ... profoundly moving.” —Geoffrey C. Ward, The New
York Times Book Review “This Republic of Suffering is one of
those groundbreaking histories in which a crucial piece of the
past, previously overlooked or misunderstood, suddenly clicks into
focus.” —Newsweek “A shattering history of the war, focusing
exclusively on death and dying—how Americans prepared for death,
imagined it, risked it, endured it and worked to understand it.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Faust 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.” —USA
Today “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 “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 topic–how America coped with the massive death toll from the
Civil War–and makes it fresh and exciting.... [A] widely and justly
praised scholarly history.” —Adam Begley, New York
Observer “This Republic of Suffering is 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 Reviews “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 Suffering is 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 of This 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 Suffering does 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 of
The Confederate War “Drew Faust’s brilliant new book, This
Republic of Suffering, builds profoundly from the opening
discussion of the Christian ideal of the good death to the last
harrowing chapters on the exhumation, partial identification,
reburial and counting of the Union dead. In the end one can only
conclude, as the author does, that the meaning of the Civil War
lies in death itself: in its scale, relentlessness, and enduring
cultural effects. This is a powerful and moving book about our
nation’s defining historical encounter with the universal human
experience of death.”—Stephanie McCurry, author of Masters 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 Suffering demolishes
sentimentalism for the Civil War in a masterpiece of research,
realism, and originality.”—David W. Blight, author of Race and
Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks instead at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust (Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind-grisly, random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home. She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death-conscious, composed and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier's death, sometimes years after war's end; the swelling national movement to recover soldiers' remains and give them decent burials; the intellectual quest to find meaning-or its absence-in the war's carnage. In the process, she contends, the nation invented the modern culture of reverence for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material-condolence letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and stories from Civil War-era writers-to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief. Photos. (Jan. 10) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
"Extraordinary ... profoundly moving." -Geoffrey C. Ward, The
New York Times Book Review "This Republic of Suffering is one
of those groundbreaking histories in which a crucial piece of the
past, previously overlooked or misunderstood, suddenly clicks into
focus." -Newsweek "A shattering history of the war, focusing
exclusively on death and dying-how Americans prepared for death,
imagined it, risked it, endured it and worked to understand it."
-Los Angeles Times Book Review "Faust 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." -USA Today
"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 "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 topic-how America coped with the massive death toll
from the Civil War-and makes it fresh and exciting.... [A] widely
and justly praised scholarly history." -Adam Begley, New York
Observer "This Republic of Suffering is 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 Reviews "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 Suffering is 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 of This 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 Suffering does 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 of The
Confederate War "Drew Faust's brilliant new book, This Republic of
Suffering, builds profoundly from the opening discussion of the
Christian ideal of the good death to the last harrowing chapters on
the exhumation, partial identification, reburial and counting of
the Union dead. In the end one can only conclude, as the author
does, that the meaning of the Civil War lies in death itself: in
its scale, relentlessness, and enduring cultural effects. This is a
powerful and moving book about our nation's defining historical
encounter with the universal human experience of death."-Stephanie
McCurry, author of Masters 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 Suffering demolishes sentimentalism for the Civil War in a
masterpiece of research, realism, and originality."-David W.
Blight, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American
Memory
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