CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORK
TIMES, THE GUARDIAN, AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL
A teenage Quaker joins the Union Army and experiences firsthand the
brutality of the Civil War in this singular graphic novel by a beloved
comics artist and animator.
During the Civil War, many Quakers were caught between their fervent
support of abolition, a desire to preserve the Union, and their
long-standing commitment to pacifism.
When Charles Cox, a young Quaker from Indiana, slips out early one
morning to enlist in the Union Army, he scandalizes his family and his
community.
Leaving behind the strict ways of Quaker life, Cox is soon confronted
with the savagery of battle, the cruelty of the enemy (as well as of his
fellow soldiers), and the overwhelming strangeness of the world beyond
his home.
He clings to his faith and family through letters with his sister,
Fanny, who faces her own trials at home: betrayal, death, and a church
that seems ready to fracture under the stress of the war.
Discipline is told largely through the letters exchanged between the
Cox siblings--incorporating material from actual Quaker and soldier
journals of the era--and drawn in a style that combines modern graphic
storytelling with the Civil War-era battlefield illustrations of the
likes of Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer.
The result is a powerful consideration of faith, justice, and violence,
and an American comics masterpiece.
