NYT reviews "This Republic of Suffering", by Drew Gilpin Faust, one of the books also discussed in a recent Gopnik piece, In the Mourning Store.

Americans had never endured anything like the losses they suffered between 1861 and 1865 and have experienced nothing like them since. Two percent of the United States population died in uniform — 620,000 men, North and South, roughly the same number as those lost in all of America’s other wars from the Revolution through Korea combined. The equivalent toll today would be six million.

The praise is effusive:

"Moving ... illuminating ... penetrating ... lucid ... insightful ... powerful ... poignant ... profound ... brilliant ... harrowing ... wise ... informed ... troubling ... a masterpiece of research, realism, and originality."

Read the first chapter.