"This Republic of Suffering"

"The Republic of Suffering," by Drew Gilpin Faust, explores how the American Civil War profoundly transformed societal attitudes toward death. It discusses how the massive scale of casualties forced the nation to confront mortality publicly, shaping mourning practices and collective grief. The book examines how Americans developed new ways to handle grief and memorialize those lost, reflecting a shift toward a more open acknowledgment of death's role in life. Ultimately, it demonstrates how the trauma of the war led to a cultural redefining of suffering, mourning, and the moral meaning of death in 19th-century America.