From the University of Nebraska Press catalog:

"War," wrote Gen. William T. Sherman, "is cruelty, and you cannot refine it." Throughout history,
noncombatants have always been among the victims of war's violence. In this book, nine
distinguished historians examine twenty-five hundred years of human conflicts and their varied
impacts on civilian society. Each case study examines not only what military forces did to
noncombatants in the area of their operations, but why they did it and how they justified their
actions. The focus, however, remains firmly on the practical realities of war, not on normative
theories or the prescriptions of the "laws of war." The patterns that emerge from the nine case
studies are not simple ones. Some of the same factors and pressures appear again and again,
though the balance among them and the ultimate outcome vary greatly. We see how often
devastation has served as a tool of coercive diplomacy, but also how logistic considerations have
greatly affected the calculus of pillage versus restraint. The importance of precedent, of culture, of
ideology or morality, and of morale become clear. This book addresses crucial issues in an era in
which historians have come to appreciate that a full understanding of war must address its victims
as well as its victors, and when policymakers are perhaps more concerned than ever with minimizing the impact of war on civilian society.

Mark Grimsley is an associate professor of history at Ohio State University. He is the author of The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865 and coauthor of The Collapse of the Confederacy (Nebraska 2001). Clifford J. Rogers is an associate professor of history at the United States Military Academy. He is the author of War Cruel and Sharp: English Strategy under Edward III, 1327–1360 and editor of The Military Revolution Debate: Reading on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe.

Cloth: 2002, , , CIP.LC 2001043075, 0-8032-2182-7, $45.00

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