Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Jefferson Davis, American: A Biography by William J. Cooper ISBN: 0-394-56916-4 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (22 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A good read, but some analysis missing
Comment: Jefferson Davis is a good book, and the writing and research generally well-done. The author searched through original sources sometimes contradicting established views. Though the book is over 800 pages, it reads easily from Davis's West Point days through the war. Cooper's analysis of how Virginia became a slave state and how war developed are particularly interesting and insightful. But something is missing, the insightful at least balanced analysis we expect from a classic.
Davis advocated slavery, and his legacy was spent trying to preserve it, at the cost of thousands of lives and untold destruction. Yet this central issue seems to get glossed over with Cooper seemingly unwilling to condemn this atrocity. Instead we get this picture of Davis as this kindly old gentlemen, with slaves well-cared for and working alongside him or his father. While Davis's supposed caring for slaves is repeated, none of them stuck with him durign the tough times of the civil war, and presumably they would see his "generosity" differently.
Cooper fails to look at it some obvious contradictions in Davis. President Davis had no problem with slaves being chained and travelling months across the ocean, and then periodically chained or beaten. Yet when after the war Davis was jailed and restrained for a few weeks he went absolutely ballistic. Let, me out, let me, LET ME OUT! I'm chained, I can't live like this, the ex-president exclaimed. While taking a black man away from his family was part of life, Jefferson had extreme difficult coping with estrangement from his family.
Noting the difference between what Davis tolerated for others and for himself would have been useful.
At varoius times, Davis's happy family life, activity in the community, and pleasantries are noted. But can we ignore the other part. Take this example. Him... was a loving husband, active in the church, a good friend, and a caring family member. He will be remembered for his devotion to his countries, the long hours he spent trying to make it better, his organization skills, and the lists he kept. His name was Heinrich Himmler, and as chief of the Gestapo, he helped imprison over 1,000,000 Jews, gypsies, partisans and others, sending them to painful humiliating deaths, with 8 and 9 year old children among his victims. Would an analysis of Himmler be as fair if we discussed his life but said he had a "minor" gap.
I hope that in a future version, the author can take a good book, well-researched, written nicely, and make it into a great one, at least a fair and balanced one. Davis was an American in the same sense that many of our persidents were slaveowners and like today some of our guards brutalized those from other countries. Davis's legacy is not a pleasant one, and his tremendous moral failing is the centerpience oof his legacy, not a brief point to be noted in a preface.
Rating: 4
Summary: good bio but not quite great
Comment: At first I was curious what happened to Jefferson Davis after the war then i was curious why he was named president of the confederacy and then I wondered what happened to him during the Civil War. Hence I picked up this book and had my questions answered. I'll leave the answers to the reader. I found the book generally informative and well written. I always have to fight my way through early life in a bio, but Davis' life was interesting and well described by Cooper. The sections describing Davis public life before and during the war were well written and quite interesting. Cooper does a good job of explaining the southern mind in the 1850's. I have a couple of quibbles with the book. First Cooper can be quite repetitive giving the same fact or story over again, sometimes within 3 pages of the first statement. Second there are some contradictions. For example Cooper talks about what good friends Davis and Seward were til the end. But then he tells about Seward's desire to jail, try and maybe hang Davis. He mentions how bitter they were too. How does he reconcile these facts? Overall though, a good pick up for somebody curious about Jefferson Davis and the south, especially before the Civil War.
Rating: 5
Summary: Incredible Bio - READ IT!
Comment: William J. Cooper has taken one of the most confused and often misjudged figures in American history and written a very detailed and entertaining portrayal of the first and only President of the Confederate States. Many people would be surprised to find out that in the antebellum south, Jefferson Davis was a staunch Unionist and adamantly opposed secession until he had no other choice and was literally thrown into the presidency of the Confederate States of America, whether he liked it or not.
Cooper is careful not to glorify or demean Davis in any way. The Confederate president definitely had his flaws, the most prominent of which was his undying support of slavery.
Between all the positives and negatives, Jefferson Davis was a man of his time. If you are a civil war buff or just someone who wants to read a very well written piece of work on American history, Jefferson Davis, American is highly recommended.
 |
Title: Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas ISBN: 0393316319 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government by William C. Davis ISBN: 0151005648 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 04 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
 |
Title: Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour by William C. Davis ISBN: 0807120790 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition. by Bruce Catton ISBN: 0673393275 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 01 June, 1954 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
 |
Title: LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald ISBN: 068482535X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 05 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
