Upon the Altar of the Nation : A Moral History of the Civil War

A timely reconsideration of just war,” this landmark history closely examines the moral underpinnings of the War Between the States When the nation tore itself apart during the Civil War, the North and the South marched under the banner of God. Yet the true moral aspects of this war have received little notice from historians of the period. In this gripping volume, Yale religious historian Harry S. Stout demonstrates how both groups’ claims that they had God on their side fueled the ferocity of the conflict and its enduring legacy today.Proceeding chronologically from the election of Lincoln to the start of Reconstruction, Stout explores how the fundamental moral conduct of the war shifted from a limited conflict fought over constitutional issues to a total war in which slaughter both on and off the battlefield was justified as the only means to unconditional victory. As North and South alike enshrined their causes as sacred, a kind of national religion emerged based on martyrdom and rebirth through violence.Drawing on a fascinating array of Civil War letters, sermons, editorials, diaries, and battle photographs, Stout reveals how men and women were ensnared in the time’s patriotic propaganda and ideological grip and how these wartime policies continue to echo in the debates today. Sure to provoke a major reevaluation of this bloody and tormented period and appeal to readers of James McPherson, Garry Wills, and David Herbert Donald, Upon the Altar of the Nationis a provocative and surprising examination of motive and conduct, both on and off the battlefield.

Harry S. Stout is the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History at Yale University and the author of The New England Soul. He has received an NEH Research Fellowship and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, among other awards. Currently the editor of the twenty-seven volume series of The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Professor Stout has coedited the seventeen-volume series Religion and American Life designed for public schools.