Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the Bancroft PrizeA New York Times Notable Book
In the fateful closing days of 1862, three weeks before Emancipation, the administration of Abraham Lincoln commissioned a code setting forth the laws of war for the armies of the United States. The code announced standards of civilized conduct in wartime concerning issues such as torture, prisoners of war, civilians, spies, and slaves. The code Lincoln approved ultimately shaped the course of the Civil War. And when the war was over, the same code reshaped warfare the world over. By the twentieth century, the 157 articles of Lincoln’s code had become the basis of a new international law of war. European powers adopted the American code. International agreements like the Geneva Conventions incorporated and expanded it.
In this pathbreaking and deeply original book, John Fabian Witt tells the hidden story of the laws of war in the first century of the United States-and of the extraordinary code that emerged from it to change the course of world history. Lincoln’s Code is the haunting and inspiring story of an idea in American history: the idea that conduct in war can be regulated by law. For many, the very idea of a law for war has seemed like an oxymoron. But with sweep and vitality, Witt unfolds the story of the cast of characters who invented the modern laws of war. Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin championed Enlightenment rules for civilized warfare.
James Madison went to war in 1812 to vindicate them. Indian conflicts challenged and distorted them. The Mexican War quietly revolutionized them. In the Civil War, Lincoln and a small band of now forgotten figures helped remake those same laws to support Emancipation and advance the Union war effort. Three decades later, a new generation of Americans went into a war of American empire in the Philippines equipped with the very rules Lincoln had laid down.
In beautifully crafted prose, Witt brings to life the soldiers and the presidents, the war makers and the pacifists, the Indians and the slaves, the cynics, the utopians, and the pragmatists who struggled with enemies and with one another to shape the United States’ vision of the laws of war. A narrative of expansive range and significance, Lincoln’s Code depicts the drama of armed conflict and the anguish of human beings grappling with such vexing questions as whether prisoners could be executed; whether there were rules in Indian wars; whether military commissions could try unlawful combatants; whether torture might ever be justified; and whether slaves could be freed in wartime. The code Lincoln issued prohibited cruelty and the infliction of pain for its own sake but left room for vast destruction in the name of a just cause. It condoned the devastation inflicted in Sherman’s march to the sea. Yet it also provided a moral foundation for Emancipation and insisted that doing the right thing in situations of grave crisis was indispensable to the legitimacy of modern armies.
Witt’s engrossing exploration of the dilemmas at the heart of the laws of war is a prehistory of our own era. Today the world once again confronts raging legal and moral controversy over the conduct of war. Lincoln’s Code reveals that the controversies of the twenty-first century have roots going back to the beginnings of American history. In a time of heated controversy about the nation’s conduct in wartime, Lincoln’s Code is a compelling story of ideals under pressure and a landmark contribution to our understanding of the American experience.
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"In this splendid and readable narrative, John Fabian Witt shows how Americans from the Founding Fathers to Abraham Lincoln argued, and sometimes agonized, over the elusive and indistinct boundary between the legitimate application of military force on behalf of the nation and crimes against humanity.
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"A gripping narrative of the struggle to maintain the aspiration to honor, decency and common humanity amidst the brutal imperatives of war--from our war for independence, through the Civil War to the suppression of the insurrection in the Philippines.
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"Lincoln's Code is a rich, subtle, and honest book that uncovers the deep impact of the laws of war in American history.
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"As bitter disputes still fester about how far Americans should submit to international legal rules, John Fabian Witt offers a dispassionate historical perspective and an insightful truth. From the beginning, Witt shows, America has proclaimed moral rules and deployed military force, no more paradoxically in combination than during our Civil War, in which Francis Lieber first codified the law of war for the world. Witt's book is deeply researched and beautifully written: an indispensable masterpiece for anyone who cares about how America's past bears on our present and future."
--Samuel Moyn, Columbia University, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History
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"If there was ever a time for this book, it is now. As the war on terror continues unabated and controversy continues over the use of military commissions, detention, interrogation, due process and civil liberties, this extraordinary and well written account about the laws of war in America is a primer and road map for our citizens and those who are, or should be, trying to comprehend and prepare the legal and military processes for all present and future."
--Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice (ret.), Supreme Court of R.I. and founding Chair, The Lincoln Forum
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"[Lincoln's Code] will please Civil War buffs, legal and military historians, and international lawyers alike. Witt's research on letters, drafts, and other documents written by Lieber
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"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . .
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"Exhaustive, authoritative, written with drama and flair,
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“Magnificent . . . Lincoln’s Code is both a celebratory chronicle of American lawmaking and a gruesome record of American wartime cruelty. . . . This monumental book, resting on colossal archival research and packed with memorable stories and arguments, is a major contribution to making sense of ours.” Gary J. Bass
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“[A] sweeping history of American engagement with the idea that the brutality of war should be constrained by humanitarian rules.” Max Boot - Commentary Magazine
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"[A] significant work. . . . Witt establishes and supports a provocative case that the [law of war] reflects two competing, fundamental American ideals: humanitarianism and justice." Jennifer Schuessler - The New York Times
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"Artfully mixing law, history, and sharp analysis, [Witt] examines the persistent struggle to reconcile justice and humanitarianism in America’s conduct of war... Truly remarkable, composed with all the precision and insight you expect from a law professor, marked by all the elegance and sparkling readability you don’t." < -="" i="" -=""> - < -="" b="" -=""> - Publishers Weekly - < -="" -=""> - < -="" -="">
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Pulitzer Prize Finalist Bancroft Prize Winner
ABA Silver Gavel Award Winner
Scribes Book Award Winner
William Hurst Book Prize Winner
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Nonfiction of the Year
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"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . .
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"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . .
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"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . .
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andlt;bandgt;Pulitzer Prize Finalistandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;Bancroft Prize Winnerandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;ABA Silver Gavel Award Winnerandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;Scribes Book Award Winnerandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;William Hurst Book Prize Winnerandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;A andlt;iandgt;New York Timesandlt;/iandgt; Notable Book of the Yearandlt;/bandgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;bandgt;andlt;iandgt;Kirkus Reviewsandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;andlt;bandgt; Top 25 Nonfiction of the Yearandlt;/bandgt;
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andlt;divandgt;"[A]
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andlt;divandgt;"[andlt;Iandgt;Lincoln's Codeandlt;/Iandgt;] will please Civil War buffs, legal and military historians, and international lawyers alike. Witt's research on letters, drafts, and other documents written by Lieber
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andlt;divandgt;"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . .
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andlt;divandgt;"Exhaustive, authoritative, written with drama and flair,
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andlt;divandgt;"A gripping narrative of the struggle to maintain the aspiration to honor, decency and common humanity amidst the brutal imperatives of war--from our war for independence, through the Civil War to the suppression of the insurrection in the Philippines.
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and#8220;[A] magnificent new book . . . thrilling . . . . This monumental book, resting on colossal archival research and packed with memorable stories and arguments, is a major contribution.and#8221;
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and#8220;[andlt;Iandgt;Lincolnand#8217;s Codeandlt;/Iandgt;] will please Civil War buffs, legal and military historians, and international lawyers alike. Wittand#8217;s research on letters, drafts, and other documents written by Lieber and the other major figures is impressive, and he presents it lucidly, fairly, and comprehensively, enabling the reader to draw his own conclusions.and#8221;
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"[W]ell-written and fascinating . . . . The value of Wittand#8217;s account is that it shows how the answer to [where we draw lines] has changed over the centuriesand#8212;and how, whether in the Civil War or the War on Terror, our political leaders have struggled to reconcile the sometimes competing demands of humanitarianism and justice."
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and#8220;Exhaustive, authoritative, written with drama and flair, andlt;Iandgt;Lincolnand#8217;s Codeandlt;/Iandgt; is a remarkable work about remarkable men. Witt examines the attitudes and actions that characterizedandlt;a name="_GoBack"andgt;andlt;/aandgt; military conduct prior to the Civil War, and then traces the impact of the Lieber Code on world affairs in the century and more that followed, all demonstrating what a genuinely unique and revolutionary act it was for Lincoln, his war leaders, and Lieber, to rise above their temporal conflict by attempting to make some sense out of chaos, and some humanity from inhumanity.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A gripping narrative of the struggle to maintain the aspiration to honor, decency and common humanity amidst the brutal imperatives of warand#8212;from our war for independence, through the Civil War to the suppression of the insurrection in the Philippines. At the center John Witt places the first code for the conduct of war, promulgated by Lincoln during the darkest days of the Civil War: harsh, relentless, realistic, yet placing firm limits forbidding torture, the abuse of prisoners, treachery and purposeful harm to civilians. This book is an important addition to the ever-growing monument to our greatest and most complex national leader.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;and#8212;Charles Fried, author, with Gregory Fried, of andlt;Iandgt;Because It Is Wrong: andlt;/Iandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terrorandlt;/Iandgt;
Synopsis
A major account of the history of the law of war in the United States and major changes to it during the Lincoln presidency.
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Bancroft Prize Winner
ABA Silver Gavel Award Winner
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
In the closing days of 1862, just three weeks before Emancipation, the administration of Abraham Lincoln commissioned a code setting forth the laws of war for US armies. It announced standards of conduct in wartime--concerning torture, prisoners of war, civilians, spies, and slaves--that shaped the course of the Civil War. By the twentieth century, Lincoln's code would be incorporated into the Geneva Conventions and form the basis of a new international law of war.
In this deeply original book, John Fabian Witt tells the fascinating history of the laws of war and its eminent cast of characters--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Lincoln--as they crafted the articles that would change the course of world history. Witt's engrossing exploration of the dilemmas at the heart of the laws of war is a prehistory of our own era. Lincoln's Code reveals that the heated controversies of twenty-first-century warfare have roots going back to the beginnings of American history. It is a compelling story of ideals under pressure and a landmark contribution to our understanding of the American experience.
Synopsis
By one of the nation’s foremost legal historians, a groundbreaking history of the pioneering American role in establishing the modern laws of war.In the dark closing days of 1862, following the calamitous Union defeats of Antietam and Fredricksburg, Abraham Lincoln ordered the drafting of a formal code of war—157 rules to govern the conduct of Union troops that would become the foundation of the modern laws of war. The code was swiftly adopted by the European powers, became a global phenomenon, and formed the basis for the Geneva Convention. Yet the story of Lincoln’s code, and of the long American struggle with the ethics of war, is one of profound contradictions; while the code ruled out torture, it authorized the execution of prisoners, the starving of noncombatants, and “any measure necessary” to defend the country. The code was in many ways a new weapon of war.
In this masterful history, based on path-breaking original, critically acclaimed historian John Witt charts the alternately troubled and triumphant course of America’s leadership in creating the laws of war, from the Revolution through the War of 1812 on to the Indian Wars, the Civil War, and the imperial invasion of the Phillipines, as enlightened principles of constraint are put forward hand in hand with the evolution of the destructive style of all-out engagement that came to be known as “the American way of war.” In the wake of a heated controversy about the nation’s conduct in the current wars, Lincoln’s Code is a major contribution to the understanding of America’s turbulent experience in grappling with the ethics of war.
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize Finalist andlt;BRandgt;Bancroft Prize Winnerandlt;BRandgt;ABA Silver Gavel Award Winnerandlt;BRandgt;A andlt;Iandgt;New York Timesandlt;/Iandgt; Notable Book of the Yearandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;In the closing days of 1862, just three weeks before Emancipation, the administration of Abraham Lincoln commissioned a code setting forth the laws of war for US armies. It announced standards of conduct in wartimeand#8212;concerning torture, prisoners of war, civilians, spies, and slavesand#8212;that shaped the course of the Civil War. By the twentieth century, Lincolnand#8217;s code would be incorporated into the Geneva Conventions and form the basis of a new international law of war.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;In this deeply original book, John Fabian Witt tells the fascinating history of the laws of war and its eminent cast of charactersand#8212;Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Lincolnand#8212;as they crafted the articles that would change the course of world history. Wittand#8217;s engrossing exploration of the dilemmas at the heart of the laws of war is a prehistory of our own era. andlt;Iandgt;Lincolnand#8217;s Codeandlt;/Iandgt; reveals that the heated controversies of twenty-first-century warfare have roots going back to the beginnings of American history. It is a compelling story of ideals under pressure and a landmark contribution to our understanding of the American experience.
About the Author
andlt;Bandgt;John Fabian Wittandlt;/Bandgt; is the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale Law School, a professor in the Yale history department, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellow. His work has appeared in andlt;i andgt;The New York Timesandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;iandgt;Slateandlt;/iandgt;, the andlt;iandgt;Harvard Law Reviewandlt;/iandgt;, and the andlt;iandgt;Yale Law Journalandlt;/iandgt;, among other publications. Witt is the author of andlt;iandgt;The Accidental Republicandlt;/iandgt;, whichandlt;iandgt; andlt;/iandgt;was awarded book prizes by the Harvard Press Board of Syndics, the American Society for Legal History, and the Law and Society Association.