In This Republic Of Suffering, historian Drew Gilpin Faust reveals that the rate of death during the American Civil war was six times that of World War II — a fact which created a shared sense of suffering that helped the nation reunite after the war was over.
Faust, who is the president of Harvard University, was recently nominated for a National Book Award for the This Republic Of Suffering.
This interview was originally broadcast on Jan. 1, 2008
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