Shook over Hell : Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Eric T. Dean Jr., a lawyer whose interest in the Civil War prompted him to return to school to obtain a Ph.D. in history, makes a unique contribution to Civil War studies with his research on the psychological effects of the war on its veterans. Digging through the pension records of Civil War vets, Dean documents the great number who, suffering from severe psychological problems triggered by intense combat experience, were dutifully provided with disability pensions by the U.S. government. Dean's central thesis--that these veterans provide a mirror for the experiences of their counterparts in Vietnam a century later--is supported with lucid reasoning. Of particular interest are the many stories of intense Civil War combat and its psychological aftereffects, including many cases of Civil War veterans committed to asylums well into the 1890s--case studies seldom found in standard histories which offer painful testimony to the war's enormous impact on the nation. --Robert McNamara
The Atlantic Monthly, James M. McPherson
Shook over Hell is genuinely revisionist on two fronts: it changes our understanding of psychiatric casualties in both the Vietnam War and the Civil War; and it does so not by sleight of hand, redefining terms while leaving the substance unchanged, but by solid research, sound analysis, and lucid (if at times repetitious) writing.... Dean's research in Civil War letters and memoirs, postwar newspapers, and pension files was thorough and exhaustive. It has yielded more information about the mental health of Union veterans than historians had previously realized was available.... Of this book it can truly be said, as it is all too often falsely said of other historical studies, that it breaks new ground.
Shook over Hell : Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War
Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War,Eric T., Jr. Dean,Harvard University Press,0674806514,Civil War, 1861-1865,History,History - General History,History: American,Mental Illness,Mental health,Military - Vietnam War,Military History - Modern,Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders,Post-traumatic stress disorder,Psychology,Psychopathology - General,United States,United States - Civil War,Veterans,Vietnam War, 1961-1975,History / Military / General
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