The Calculus of Violence, Aaron SheehanDean
The Calculus of Violence, Aaron SheehanDean
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The Calculus of Violence
How Americans Fought the Civil War

Author: Aaron Sheehan-Dean

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 17 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/21/2019

Synopsis

At least three-quarters of a million lives were lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly indiscriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of as the first "total war." But Aaron Sheehan-Dean argues for another interpretation.

The Calculus of Violence demonstrates that this notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers and civilians. In Congress, in church pews, and in letters home, Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among victims—women and men, black and white, enslaved and free. Sometimes, as Sheehan-Dean shows, these well-meaning restraints led to more carnage by implicitly justifying the killing of people who were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on, the Union's confrontations with guerrillas and the Confederacy's confrontations with black soldiers forced a new reckoning with traditional categories of lawful combatants and raised legal disputes that still hang over military operations around the world today.

About Aaron Sheehan-Dean

Aaron Sheehan-Dean is Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University. His books include The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It and Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Stan

The term “bloody” is so frequently attached as qualifier to the American Civil War that we tend to accept it without question. But how bloody was it? According to some estimates, in excess of 620,000 soldiers died on both sides, perhaps another 50,000 civilians, and total casualties including those......more

Goodreads review by Abby Jane

Really excellent exploration of violence during the Civil War. Sheehan-Dean is very thorough, discussing everything from types of warfare to various social groups affected by it. Because of this detailed coverage, The Calculus of Violence is a dense read and probably not something that most people c......more

Goodreads review by Gregory

This is a must-read book for scholars of the Civil War era. Sheehan-Dean breaks down some of the most important episodes in the American Civil War that involve harsh violence that blurred the lines of the "laws of war" in the 19th century. The strength of the book is in having a philosophical focal p......more

Goodreads review by David

An extended discussion not about how violent the Civil War was - that’s a given - but how violence was controlled and kept within limits - this much, and no farther. The battlefield ethics of combat (taking prisoners etc.) are pretty well defined but the more interesting cases occurred when the conf......more

Goodreads review by Thomas

A bit of a slog, but this book presents a really important perspective on the war and should be a go-to resource for responding to the myths and legends that still get passed around. Getting through the audiobook was a little easier when I interpreted discussion of guerillas as referring to gorillas......more

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