A recent episode of PBS’s American Experience explored how the massive number of deaths in the Civil War sent the nation into shock. The catastrophe—750,000 dead—was equivalent to the U.S. suffering 7 million deaths today. Besides evoking this ghastly experience, Ric Burns’s film
Death and the Civil War (reviewed
here in the New York Times), which is based on Drew Gilpin’s book
The Republic of Suffering, offers a fascinating perspective on current political debates over the size and scope of the federal government.