This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

By Drew Gilpin Faust

Categories: History

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008) is a book by historian Drew Gilpin Faust, who served as president of Harvard University from 2007 to 2018. Faust examines how the Civil War's unprecedented death toll changed how Americans dealt with death, burial, mourning and the duties of government. She shows how a nation of the living learned to account for hundreds of thousands of dead.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “This week's book of the week is one of the finest books written on the civil war. "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War" by the eminent historian Drew Faust who also happens to be president of Harvard University. It is a profound moving book on how the civil war changed our understanding of death. There's a PBS documentary based on the book that's out this week as well.”