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Drew Gilpin Faust Books

1 book·~10 min total read

Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian and the former president of Harvard University. A leading scholar of the American South and the Civil War, she has written extensively on issues of gender, race, and death in nineteenth-century America.

Known for: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

Books by Drew Gilpin Faust

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

war_military·10 min read

In this landmark study, historian Drew Gilpin Faust explores how the unprecedented scale of death during the American Civil War transformed the nation’s understanding of mortality, duty, and the meaning of life itself. Drawing on letters, diaries, and official records, Faust examines how soldiers, families, and the government coped with the staggering human cost of the conflict, reshaping American culture and institutions in the process.

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1

Dying

For nineteenth-century Americans, dying was supposed to be a moment of spiritual triumph, an affirmation of faith and family. Soldiers went to war steeped in that belief. They carried letters, small Bibles, and expectations of a 'good death.' Yet battlefields overturned every element of that ideal. ...

From This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

2

Killing

The Civil War forced Americans to reconcile Christian morality with the brutal necessity of killing. Soldiers had to redefine their sense of righteousness in the face of slaughter. Many struggled to perceive the taking of life as duty rather than sin. Letters often reveal that early in the war, men ...

From This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

About Drew Gilpin Faust

Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian and the former president of Harvard University. A leading scholar of the American South and the Civil War, she has written extensively on issues of gender, race, and death in nineteenth-century America.

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Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian and the former president of Harvard University. A leading scholar of the American South and the Civil War, she has written extensively on issues of gender, race, and death in nineteenth-century America.

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