Sheehan-Dean, Aaron

OUR SYNOPSIS: Aaron Sheehan-Dean reframes the U.S. Civil War by examining “how people on both sides justified the lethal violence of the conflict and when, how, and why they balanced cruelty and destruction with restraint and mercy.” (1) He argues that Confederate toleration of guerrillas, Union emancipation, and nationalism exacerbated violence whereas the state was the primary force restraining violence for both sides. He illuminates the interactive process through which “Participants on both sides adjusted their moral reckoning with the war in relation to each other.” (9) By emphasizing the localized manifestations of these moral conflicts, he shows the everyday importance of the general public’s views on the motivations and righteousness of the war. Emancipation was the most significant ethical and ideological divide of the war. This also led to sheer racial violence through atrocities against African Americans, especially since Confederates viewed emancipation and Black enlistment as unjust. The war maintained a substantial international context since participants framed the conflict through global historical comparisons. Regarding how the war ended, Sheehan-Dean emphasizes the role of it being “fought between two well organized modern states.” (314) The at least temporary state apparatus on both sides enabled diplomacy and eventually Lee’s surrender, along with somewhat ordered control over soldier behavior. State structures prevented unmitigated chaos.