The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government: Volume 2 (Da Capo Paperback) [Paperback]

Jefferson Davis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0306804190 | ISBN-13: 978-0306804199 | Publication Date: August 22, 1990

A decade after his release from Federal prison, the 67-year-old Jefferson Davis—ex-President of the Confederacy, the "Southern Lincoln," popularly regarded as a martyr to the Confederate cause—began work on his monumental Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Motivated partially by his deep-rooted antagonism toward his enemies (both the Northern victors and his Southern detractors), partially by his continuing obsession with the "cause," and partially by his desperate pecuniary and physical condition, Davis devoted three years and extensive research to the writing of what he termed "an historical sketch of the events which preceded and attended the struggle of the Southern states to maintain their existence and their rights as sovereign communities." The result was a perceptive two-volume chronicle, covering the birth, life, and death of the Confederacy, from the Missouri Compromise in 1820, through the tumultuous events of the Civil War, to the readmission of the Southern States to the Congress in the late 1860s. Supplemented with a new historical foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning James M. McPherson, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume I, belongs in the library of anyone interested in the root causes, the personalities, and the events of America's greatest war.

Product Details

• Paperback: 700 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 22, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306804190
• ISBN-13: 978-0306804199
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Analysis of the Constitution, July 21, 2000

By 

Jeff Melton - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government: Volume 2 (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

This book should be required reading in all classrooms, and should further be owned by anyone who would like to understand the truth behind the Confederacy, and the unconstitutional war that followed the secession of the Southern states.

President Davis shows himself to be a preeminent constitutional scholar with his in-depth analysis of the 10th Amendment and the inherent right of the states to secede from the union into which they voluntarily entered. While this book was difficult for President Davis to write, due to the hardships he endured during and after the war, we should all be thankful that he took the time and conducted the research that went into this well-written and very informative book.

There are a great deal of insights into the inner workings of the Confederate government, but this book is worth far more than the price of admission for the constitutional analysis, and for the way he explains how the war started, and the duplicity of the Lincoln cabinet during the critical months prior to the first shots being fired.

The only blemish on this edition is the ridiculous "introduction" by James McPhearson. Why someone was chosen to write an "introduction" to a book of this magnitude who has no understanding of the issues discussed by President Davis, and who wants only to make petty comments about the man and the cause that he fought for is a question to which there is no answer. This book would have been a far better package without the apologist nonsense that hides under the title of "introduction", and it's recommended that this part of the book be ignored by serious students of history and the Constitution.

This is an eye-opening book that will forever alter your perceptions of the events that gave rise to the events of 1860-1865.

109 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing read, February 16, 2000

By 

Ernest Roberts (Amelia, Va USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government: Volume 2 (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

This work is one which most southerners have probably seen in the bookcases of their grandparents, but one which has been skipped by most of us. The fact that the book is still in print nearly 120 years after its publication is strong evidence that it is a work of some weight. I suppose I can't be too surprised to find that there is a new "introduction" to the work written by a devotee of the cult of Lincoln. It would appear that to this day, no northern publisher can present a work by a Confederate author without having a northern propagandist attach a scathing critique of the author under the guise of an introduction. This important work is no exception to the long-standing rule.

James McPherson, a simpering, mincing little academic at Princeton, was called upon to attempt a nullification of this important work. The work of three years of the author's life suffers not at all at the hands of McPherson. The few pages of mewling sophism from McPherson, which passes as an "introduction", should be read by anyone who begins the process of learning the Confederate President's view of the events germane to the watershed of American history. To read McPherson's sniveling attempt to stain the memory of a man whose boots McPherson will never even be worthy to lick should show any of us that there still exist people in the north who are terrified at the prospect of the public learning of the issues over which the war was actually fought.

Join me in reading the words of a great man and laughing over the silly posturings of the simpering little nobody from Princeton who makes his feeble attempt to prejudice the minds of readers. You will probably be as engrossed by this book as I was. You may even be as amused at the whining of McPherson as I have been.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Rise & Fall of the Confederate Government, part 2, October 15, 2009

By 

Allen Marino (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government: Volume 2 (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)

Very detailed account of the Southern side of the Civil War, written by the man who knew it best. Not an easy read.