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The Unsuspected Francis Lieber, Richard Salomon
The Unsuspected Francis Lieber, Richard Salomon
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
"The Unsuspected Francis Lieber" examines paradoxes in the life and work of Francis Lieber. Lieber is best known as the author of the 1863 "Lieber Code," the War Department's General Order No. 100. It was the first modern statement of the law of armed conflict. This paper questions whether the Lieber Code was truly humanitarian, especially in view of its valorization of military necessity. Also reviewed is the contrast between the Code's extraordinarily favorable treatment of African-Americans and Lieber's personal history of slave-holding.
Lieber's shift from civil libertarian to authoritarian after 1857, as exemplified by his support of Lincoln's suspension …