War Is All Hell

Edward J. Blum is Professor of History at San Diego State University.John H. Matsui is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Washington and Lee University.

"This compact, lively book offers a fresh angle on religion and the U.S. Civil War...Using the tools of cultural history, War Is All Hell connects Americans' beliefs about supernatural evil to how they made personal and collective sense of the violence and dehumanization of warfare...Whatever its underlying meaning, 'evil' was no doubt key to how many experienced the Civil War, making this book a worthy addition to the history of religion and conflict during those years and beyond. It is also a timely one, as claims about supernatural evil are once again resurgent in American politics." (Journal of Southern History) "Other historians have examined the Civil War for invocations of the divine. This book instead looks for references to the devil. Blum and Matsui weave a compelling narrative that shows how, before the war, satanic imagery and language were relatively rare, especially in reference to battlefield comportment." (The Christian Century) "From the hellishness of slavery, to the horrors of warfare, to the terrorism of the Klan, images of the demonic suffused American culture and confounded Abraham Lincoln's appeals to our 'better angels.' In this fascinating study of how Americans conceptualized evil, Blum and Matsui make a banner contribution to Civil War studies." (Elizabeth R. Varon, author of Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War) "As no other generation has, Civil War era Americans confronted the evil within. Blum and Matsui offer a remarkably original and graceful meditation on how Americans traced their descent into civil war to the ascendance of evil and Satan. Every page is sprinkled with fascinating and unexpected discoveries. War Is All Hell is a reminder of how much gifted historians and writers can teach us about the Civil War." (W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition)