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    "No Sacrifice is too Great, save that of Honor": Honor, Death, and Psychological Combat Trauma in the American Civil War

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    Issue Date
    2009-04-08
    Author
    Sheffer, Debra J.
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    306 pages
    Type
    Dissertation
    Degree Level
    Ph.D.
    Discipline
    History
    Rights
    This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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    Abstract
    Examination of honor culture and attitudes toward death and dying found in letters, diaries, and newspapers - from the colonial and revolutionary period through the Civil War era - strongly suggests that Civil War soldiers did not suffer from psychological combat trauma. Psychological combat trauma is as much a part of today's war as uniforms and ammunition, but this was not the reality for Civil War Americans. The truth is that all wars are terrible for those who fight them, and physical stresses of battle have been part of warfare in every age. Twentieth-century ideas of the psychological effects of war differ vastly from those of the nineteenth century. Civil War battle offered potential for psychiatric trauma. Civil War soldiers, however, lived in a time of different expectations and beliefs about honor and death and dying. Expectations for psychiatric trauma for these soldiers did not exist. This dissertation uses research in honor culture, masculinity studies, and attitudes toward death and dying to illustrate the idea that nineteenth-century cultural ideals of honor and death reduced or prevented psychological consequences of combat in Civil War soldiers.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5456
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    • Dissertations [4474]
    • History Dissertations and Theses [250]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
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    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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