num_pages: 576
description: A profound and timely examination of the moral underpinnings of the War Between the States The Civil War was not only a war of armies but also a war of ideas, in which Union and Confederacy alike identified itself as a moral nation with God on its side. In this watershed book, Harry S. Stout measures the gap between those claims and the war’s actual conduct. Ranging from the home front to the trenches and drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents, Stout explores the lethal mix of propaganda and ideology that came to justify slaughter on and off the battlefield. At a time when our country is once again at war, Upon the Altar of the Nation is a deeply necessary book.
language: English
title: Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War
titlecomplete: Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War
genres: History, The United States Of America, American History, Theology, War, American Civil War, Nonfiction, Civil War History, Civil War, United States
ratings_count: 244
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: James P. Hanlan Book Award
publisher: Penguin Books