Aaron Sheehan-Dean profundiza en las complejidades de la Guerra Civil estadounidense, examinando sus profundas causas y consecuencias. Su obra ofrece una mirada penetrante a las motivaciones de los individuos junto con las fuerzas sociales más amplias que dieron forma a esta tumultuosa era. Al enfatizar las voces auténticas de quienes vivieron estos eventos, acerca la cruda realidad del conflicto a los lectores. Sus esfuerzos editoriales actuales solidifican aún más su posición como un erudito líder de este período crucial de la historia estadounidense.
Focusing on Virginia soldiers and their families during the Civil War, the study reveals the personal experiences of rank-and-file soldiers through new statistical evidence and first-person accounts. It examines how these soldiers, including nonslaveholders, redefined their understanding of the war's purpose to maintain their commitment to the Confederate cause. The work provides a nuanced view of the social and emotional landscape of the time.
Discarding tidy abstractions about the conduct of war, Aaron Sheehan-Dean shows that the notoriously bloody US Civil War could have been much worse. Despite agonizing debates over Just War and careful differentiation among victims, Americans could not avoid living with the contradictions inherent in a conflict that was both violent and restrained.