Audiobook17 hours
The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War
Written by Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Narrated by Paul Boehmer
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
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.
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.
Author
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Aaron Sheehan-Dean is Fred C, Frey Professor of History, Louisiana State University.
Related to The Calculus of Violence
Related audiobooks
“If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania”: The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg - Volume 1: June 3–21, 1863 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Union War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA World of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen's War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War after the War: A New History of Reconstruction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Strategic Rivalries: From The Classical World to the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whirlwind of War: Voices of the Storm, 1861-1865 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Culture of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eisenhower's Armies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945–1955 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government: Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Wars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
United States History For You
Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dragonfire: Four Days That (Almost) Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letter from Birmingham Jail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Calculus of Violence
Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5 stars
5/5
3 ratings0 reviews