author
Francis Lieber
1800–1872
A German-born scholar who helped shape American political thought, he is best remembered for the Lieber Code, a landmark Civil War-era set of rules for military conduct. His life carried him from the turmoil of Napoleonic Europe to the lecture halls of South Carolina College and Columbia.
1 Audiobook
A Code for the Government of Armies in the Field, as authorized by the laws and usages of war on land.
by United States. War Department, Francis Lieber
About the author
Born in Berlin in either 1798 or 1800, Francis Lieber grew up in a Europe marked by war and political upheaval. He fought as a young volunteer in the Napoleonic Wars, later studied in Germany, and eventually emigrated to the United States, where he built a career as a writer, teacher, and public thinker.
Lieber became an important figure in American intellectual life through his work on law, politics, education, and history. He taught for many years at South Carolina College and later joined Columbia College, and he also played a major role in producing the Encyclopaedia Americana, one of the first major encyclopedias published in the United States.
He is most widely known today for the Lieber Code of 1863, written during the American Civil War for the Union Army. That code was an early attempt to define the laws and customs of war in a modern, systematic way, and it later influenced international rules on warfare. His writing and teaching helped establish political science and public law as serious academic fields in the United States.