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Article: The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Military Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 U.S. Army CGSC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE CIVIL WAR AND THE LIMITS OF DESTRUCTION, Mark E. Neely Jr., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007, 288 pages, $27.95.
Dr. Mark E. Neely focuses on a unique aspect of the Civil War to challenge a basic premise of many historians: that the war's destructiveness was unprecedented and unmatched until the 20th century. Neely compares the American Civil War to the U.S. -Mexican War, the Mexican Civil War of 1862 to 1867, and the Plains Indian wars. His central thesis is that the Civil War's "white vs. white" racial environment was a moderating influence, operating against a tendency toward increasing levels of violence prompted by frustration over the war's ...