A Very Civil War is the dramatic but little-known story of Switzerland's civil war of 1847, the Sonderbundskrieg. This conflict, as much as any other single event, inspired the revolutionaries of 1848 to action. As the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote at the time: "In the highlands was the first shot fired./What now, we still are waiting./But I know that there will be/A new burst of liberty." Remak's is the first complete account of an important...