Books
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020
Reckoning With Rebellion: War and Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century
“Sheehan-Dean, in a pathfinding monograph, seeks to understand the American Civil War in the context of global conflict and, in doing so, expands our understanding of how the war was fought, how its participants understood similar foreign insurrections, and why ours turned out the way it did.”—America’s Civil War
“A truly innovative work that makes the United States Civil War newly comprehensible. For decades scholars have been saying that we need to place the Civil War in a global context, and at last Sheehan-Dean gets about the work of doing it.”—Gregory P. Downs, author of After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War
“Sheehan-Dean carefully calibrates how other rebellions—in India, China, and Poland—interacted with and compared to the rebellion in North America. A genuinely original book, and a very welcome one.”—Adam I. P. Smith, author of The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846–1865
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019
Distinguished Book Award, Society for Military Historians
Cambridge History of the American Civil War, 3 Vols.
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the American Civil War. With contributions from over seventy-five leading historians of the Civil War, the three-volume reference work investigates the full range of human experiences and outcomes in the most transformative moment in American and global history. Volume 1 is organized around military affairs, assessing major battles and campaigns of the conflict. Volume 2 explores political and social affairs, conveying the experiences of millions of Americans who lived outside the major campaign zones in both the North and South. Volume 3 examines cultural and intellectual affairs, considering how the war’s duration, scale, and intensity drove Americans to question how they understood themselves as people. The volumes conclude with an assessment of the legacies of the Civil War, demonstrating that the war’s impact on American life shaped the country in the decades long after the end of the war.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2019
Tonous and Warda Johns Family Book Award, Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association
Distinguished Writing Award, Army Historical Foundation
Jefferson Davis Book Prize, American Civil War Museum
The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War
“Assessing the potential for the escalation of violence in the course of the war, Sheehan-Dean concludes that at many junctures both North and South ‘chose restraint’; he rejects the widespread argument that the conflict evolved from limited to total war… For Sheehan-Dean, exceptions to this pattern prove the rule and illustrate his contention that the conflict ‘could have been much worse.’”—Drew Gilpin Faust, The Wall Street Journal
“Sheehan-Dean has written a remarkable book, with a fresh take on how the Civil War was fought, why it was fought the way it was fought, and how, theoretically, it could have become a much more violent conflict than it was, had each side not been bent on presenting themselves as taking the moral high ground in an effort to curtail any great escalation in violence.”—Michael Pierce, Midwest Rewind
“Perhaps the best thing this reviewer has read about the Civil War in ages. An expertly researched and written history, it examines the dark side of the American Civil War, namely war against civilians, partisan/guerrilla war, and the nasty issues that developed about prisoners of war on both sides.”—Choice
“Confronting some of the most persistent and contentious arguments over the American Civil War, Aaron Sheehan-Dean offers a remarkable breadth of vision and depth of humanity. His unflinching account separates myth from truth, hyperbole from honesty. It is a brave, welcome, and necessary book.”—Edward L. Ayers, author of The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014
A Companion to the U.S. Civil War,
2 Vols.
“Aaron Sheehan-Dean has assembled an impressive cast of historians who offer the most comprehensive catalog of Civil War historiography to date … Historiography on the great sectional conflict may well appear overwhelming, yet A Companion to the U.S. Civil War is structured on broad themes and topics, providing an effortless guide into the literature.” — Andrew Lang, Journal of Southern History
New York: Library of America, 2011, 2014
The Civil War: The First Year Told By Those Who Lived It
The Civil War: The Final Year Told By Those Who Lived It
"Nearly a century and a half later, with the legacy of the war still very much with us, The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It allows us to return to the conflict anew, to encounter a spectrum of voices and experiences wider and more diverse than has ever been collected in a single series. Ultimately the work places us at the war's ground level, bringing us closer to the lived experience of Americans who endured this climactic period, providing a portrait more nuanced than could ever be condensed into narrative." — Randall Fuller, The Wall Street Journal
“A new anthology of Civil War writings lets us see the roots of the conflict as if for the first time.” — Daniel Walker Howe, Bookforum
“What may be the most valuable scholarly work yet to appear during the sesquicentennial — the four-volume anthology of writings, published by the Library of America since 2011 … Anyone who reads this collection will find in it a treasury of evidence, as one Union officer puts it, that ‘there is much that is beautiful as well as sad in these bloody events.’ These books bring us as close to the ‘real war’ as we are ever likely to get.” — Andrew Delbanco, New York Review of Books
New York: Oxford University Press, 2020 (2008)
Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War, 2nd ed.
"The Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War does an excellent job of taking what many see as mundane and turning it into something approachable for undergraduate students .. The maps offer educators an indispensable tool to turn often dry numbers, complex military maneuvers, and vast geographies into straightforward visual records."--Jeff Fortney, Florida Gulf Coast University
"This atlas is a highly effective tool for creating the mental geography students need to understand the Civil War era."--Allen C. Guelzo, Princeton University
"I could not imagine teaching my Civil War course without the Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War. Tt is tremendously helpful in relaying detailed information about important events and issues in a spatial form and also delivers precisely the right amount of information so that the maps make sense."--Amy Morsman, Middlebury College
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007
Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia
"Paying refreshingly close attention to change over time, Sheehan-Dean convincingly shows that, far from fracturing the Confederacy, Union hard-war policies condensed it."--Journal of Southern History
"A fresh and forceful contribution to our understanding of why these Virginians fought and how the very course of the war served to create new rationales for their resolve in doing so for so much of the Confederate nation's four-year lifespan."--Civil War Book Review
"A thought-compelling, quality monograph. . . . Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"A singular contribution to the debate. . . . Sensible and engaging."--Journal of Military History
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007
The View From the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers
""The View from the Ground, a collection of essays edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, enhances our understanding of these nineteenth-century combatants. Collectively, these essays reinforce the importance of studying military history beyond technology, battles, and leadership."" -- Ohio Valley History
""These nicely crafted and thoroughly noted essays do indeed represent well the recent scholarship on the Civil War soldier and his world."" -- The Journal of Southern History
""This collection of essays is a valuable contribution and a useful tool in the classroom as well."" -- Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Oxford, UK: Osprey, 2006
Struggle for a Vast Future: The American Civil War
"Twelve historians contributed essays to this superb, concise, and readable volume. Editor Sheehan-Dean (history, Univ. of North Florida) presents, in effect, a guide through the maze of differences between the North and South that culminated in the Civil War and reverberated thereafter...An enormous amount of history has here been condensed into a useful tool that will likely stimulate further debate and research. Students, Civil War enthusiasts, and others should find this excellent introductory text to be worth their while." —STARRED REVIEW Library Journal