Jefferson Davis, Confederate President
- ISBN-10
- 0700611703
- ISBN-13
- 9780700611706
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography / Historical
- Pages
- 542
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2002
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Authors
- Herman Hattaway, Richard E. Beringer
Description
He was one of the most embattled heads of state in American history. Charged with building a new nation while waging a war for its very independence, he accepted his responsibilities reluctantly but carried them out with a fierce dedication to his ideals. Those efforts ultimately foundered on the shoals of Confederate defeat, leaving Davis stranded in public memory as both valiant leader and desolate loser.
Now two renowned Civil War historians, Herman Hattaway and Richard Beringer, take a new and closer look at Davis's presidency. In the process, they provide a clearer image of his leadership and ability to handle domestic, diplomatic, and military matters under the most trying circumstances-without the considerable industrial and population resources of the North and without the formal recognition of other nations.
Hattaway and Beringer examine Davis's strengths and weaknesses as president in light of both traditional evidence and current theories of presidential leadership. They show us a man so respected that northern colleagues regretted his departure from the U.S. Senate, but so bent on Southern independence he was willing to impose unthinkable burdens on his citizens-an apologist for slavery who was committed to state rights, even while growing nationalism in his new country called for a stronger central government.
In assessing Davis's actual administration of the Confederate state, the authors analyze the Confederate government's constitution, institutions, infrastructure, and cabinet-level administrators. They also integrate events of Davis's presidency with the ongoing war as it encroached upon the South, offering a panoramic view of military strategy as seen from the president's office. They tell how Davis reacted to the outcomes of key battles and campaigns in order to assess his leadership abilities, his relations with civilian and military authorities, and—his own personal competency notwithstanding—his poor judgment in selecting generals.
Rich in detail and exhilaratingly told with generous selections from Davis's own letters and speeches, Hattaway and Beringer provide the most insightful account available of the first and only Confederate presidency-suggesting that perhaps it was the Confederate government, rather than Davis himself, that failed. More than that, it shows us Jefferson Davis as an American leader and offers a new appreciation of his place in our country's history.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederacy
By Jean Kinney WilliamsALE LOCAL 02-15-2005 $19.99.
-
The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government
By Jefferson DavisLook for more titles in the HarperTorch collection to build your digital library.
-
The Papers of Jefferson Davis: September 1864–May 1865
By Jefferson DavisThe eleventh volume of The Papers of Jefferson Davis follows these tumultuous last months of the Confederacy and illuminates Davis’s policies, feelings, ideas, and relationships, as well as the viewpoints of hundreds of ...
-
Jefferson Davis: Confederate President
By Joey FrazierThis title tells the story of Jefferson Davis's life, the only president of the Southern States during their secession from the Union.
-
Jefferson Davis, American
By William J. CooperAn engaging portrait of the Southern soldier-statesman who led the Confederacy retraces his evolution from a reluctant supporter of secession to his eventual total embrace of an independent Southern Confederacy.
-
Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings
By Jefferson DavisThis volume, the first of its kind, is a selected collection of his writings culled in large part from the authoritative Papers of Jefferson Davis, a multivolume edition of his letters and speeches published by the Louisiana State ...
-
The Papers of Jefferson Davis: 1862
By Jefferson DavisVolume 8 of The Papers of Jefferson Davis brings the Confederate president to the second year of the War Between the States and shows that during 1862 Davis was almost completely overwhelmed by military matters.
-
Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour
By William C. DavisColonel Samuel Cooper had held the post just a few months when Davis arrived . Davis first met Cooper on his 1837 trip to Washington , and the high recommendation given then and later by Franklin Pierce was enough to win Cooper's esteem ...
-
Jefferson Davis: Soldier and President of the Confederacy
By Joann J. BurchThis book traces the life of the Confederate leader from his childhood in Mississippi, to his years as a United States politician, through the Civil War, and his attempt to rebuild his life and reputation after the Confederacy was defeated ...
-
Jefferson Davis
By Cory Gideon GundersonFollows the life of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, tracing events from his childhood, through secession and the Civil War, to his life following the conflict.