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Book Review: A Very Civil War: The Swiss Sonderbund War Of 1842., Sabine Jessner

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Sonderbund war of 1847 was, as the author convincingly demonstrates, "a very civil war." Unlike the later North American sectional conflict, Switzerland's regional strife lasted but twenty-five days and cost fewer than a hundred lives. Yet these statistics belie the rancor that divided the opposing parties, the more than 150,000 men under arms on both sides, and the very imminent danger of international involvement.