[.ca] Jefferson Davis, American (ISBN 0375725423)

From Amazon.com:
The title might seem odd, given that Jefferson Davis (1808-89) served as president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and never once, in the 34 years between the end of the war and his death, expressed any remorse for his part in the conflict that tore America apart. Yet, as historian William J. Cooper Jr. reminds us in his sober, comprehensive biography, Davis "saw himself as a faithful American ... a true son of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers." Indeed, Davis's own father had fought in the Revolution, and Davis himself was a West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran. He declared January 21, 1861, "the saddest day of my life," as he resigned his U.S. Senate seat to follow his native state of Mississippi out of the Union; yet he also unflinchingly defended secession as a constitutionally guaranteed right. Cooper's measured portrait neither glosses over Davis's lifelong belief that blacks were inferior nor vilifies him for it: "My goal," he writes, "is to understand Jefferson Davis as a man of his time, not condemn him for not being a man of my time." The chapters on the Civil War show Davis intimately involved in military decisions, as well as in diplomatic attempts to gain foreign support for the Confederacy. Cooper acknowledges the irony of his subject--who interpreted the Constitution as strictly limiting federal authority--being forced by the war's exigencies to create a powerful, centralized Confederate government. Yet, this depiction of a forceful, self-confident Davis makes it clear that he never could have been anything but "a vigorous and potent chief executive." The author also paints an attractive picture of a warm family man who was devoted to his strong-minded wife and their children. Neither hagiography nor hatchet job, this evenhanded work sees Jefferson Davis whole. --Wendy Smith

Incredible Bio - READ IT!:
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.

Imperfect book, imperfect man make a real Song of the South:
The story of Jefferson Davis is not only the stuff of Southern mythology, but part of America's story. Tragedy, often in Greek proportions, and more subdued triumphs, mark the tides not only of Davis's life and the fortunes of the Confederacy, but also the textures of an often misunderstood and misrepresented culture in the antebellum South, a way of life that was already sadly out of step, and out of time even before the American Civil War. Jefferson Davis, son of a pioneering veteran of the Revolution, was as much a son of the fading slave-agrarian culture, the tatters of Thomas Jefferson's vision of a nation of gentleman planters, as he was a product of his time and his environment. Though born on the Kentucky frontier, the Mississippi familiar to Jefferson Davis would guide his conscience, many of his decisions, and color his world view in a way that never allowed much circumspection or evolution of his fundamental ideas. Davis, like most of us, was only adaptable to a point. His adaptability, his ability to see the need for it, ended where his Crusader-like zeal and antiquated sensibilities began. To that end, Davis was, like the majority of his contemporaries and peers, a man out of time, as much with the thrust and tempo of America's perceived identity and direction as with larger forces that were shaping and driving human history. Prof. Cooper attempts to pin down Davis's motivations, ideals; his beliefs, hopes and fortunes in this book, and fails in his presentation as often as he succeeds. At times he seems ready to explain away many of Davis's transgressions, his complexity. While the reader is given ample insight into Davis's faith, strict constructionist interpretation of the Constitution, his feelings about slavery and African-Americans; his internal struggles as a man, a politician and, eventually, the elected president of the Confederacy, there is something in Prof. Cooper's treatment that presents an emptiness at the core of Jefferson Davis the man. In spite of the fact that Cooper quotes copious correspondence, newspaper accounts, and includes the observations of Davis's contemporaries, there emerges a void that transcends merely a life of hardship and disappointment. While Davis's convictions and abilities as a man, a husband, a father, a soldier, and statesman are substantially presented, the essence of Jefferson Davis is still hidden -or obfuscated-and as isolated as the man himself obviously felt during periods of his life. I want to believe there was more than dogma at the center of Jefferson Davis, more than static ideas and crystallized convictions that were not only eroded over time, but insulted and destroyed as life took away not only his children and other loved ones, but his beloved fantasy that was the Confederacy. I prefer to think there was more to Davis, but can never be certain by reading Prof. Cooper's effort. Nonetheless, there's a lot of fascinating information about Davis, so much revealed in this volume, that no reader completing it can ever again view Davis in the same light. We are given, through the fruits of Prof. Cooper's scrupulous research, everything from Davis's health to his diet; his cigar-smoking and his lifelong belief that blacks were an inferior race, to his anfractuous political world and the multitude of forces tearing at and competing for his heart. The reader is shown a man who, if nothing else, ultimately allowed his emotional convictions -which, to many, appeared proper in their time and place-to override reason. Tragically, Davis did not understand that by the time he had risen to high Southern society and arrived in politics, he remained entranced by a vision of America that was medieval in many respects, or at least married to a kind of white lifestyle that was already an unsustainable illusion. Davis, a man of definite ideas and an incredible amount of fortitude, perhaps could not know any different -which is no justification for many of the things he did and did not do. By no means heroic in the broadest sense, and certainly not an object to be reviled, Davis is a perfect candidate for a biography about a deeply-flawed, deeply human (if not always humane) individual who led what some people still revere as a tragic "cause," as much their own "cause" as it was Davis's. All the ingredients are there, but somehow they fail to coalesce into more than episodic pictures of Jefferson Davis and those around him at different periods in his life. Prof. Cooper's prose is dense and often repetitive. In too many instances I read and re-read the same information only pages apart, sometimes verbatim. In my opinion a biography of Jefferson Davis should be a page-turner not only because of its subject, but because it is well-written. This is not a particularly well-written biography, but I couldn't put it down because I found Davis so intriguing. I don't know if another historian could have done as much justice to Davis as Prof. Cooper has attempted, but wish someone else had tried to reanimate and paint Jefferson Davis and his many worlds. Perhaps Prof. Cooper did the best he could with what history has left us. Though some essential spark is missing in this relentlessly researched work, those interested in understanding anything about Jefferson Davis and his circumstances, as offered by Prof. Cooper, will find many interesting things here. Others may come to better understand the cultural and geographical divide that seems to make the American south, then and now, a place where the dead don't stay buried long, where the perfume of rotting magnolia petals can make one drunk; a place that lives and breaths from its bayous to its mountains in a kind of dream time, in its own rhythm; a mythological place where some things really are, or were, bigger and grander, and others really were worse, more terrible; a South that is as foreign as it is friendly, a place understood by very few and loved by many.

Jefferson Davis is Remarkable and Intriguing:
Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper, Jr. At 784 pages, this is a straightforward and comprehensive volume of work which seems a very truthful portrayal of Davis and the character of his life. Filling the texts are many quotes from and excerpts from correspondences, particularly to and from Varina Davis. It is a unique perspective to follow along side of Jefferson Davis from the days of his boyhood; through his education at West Point; his service in the Mexican War; his marriage to Sarah Knox Taylor - daughter of Zachary Taylor; his political career as a representative of his native Mississippi; his term as Secretary of War for president Franklin Pierce; his absentee election to the Presidency of the Confederate States of America; a two-year stay as prisoner in Fortress Monroe; his travels through Europe; meager business ventures during reconstruction; to Beauvior and the writing of his memoirs. The happiness and heartache of love and family matters, and of raising children are ever present through this remarkable journey. Jefferson and Varina lost all four of their sons to death before any could marry. Davis was a man of the highest character and maintained his unwavering conviction that the south had acted justly and constitutionally in its bid for independence until the end of his life. I appreciated the honesty of the book and its obvious loyalty to the reality of the times. The world was a different place during Davis's life and I feel that Cooper has done a fine job of bringing the era to the reader.

A good read, but some analysis missing:
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.

A Refreshingly Objective Biography:
Dr. Cooper has made every effort to present the life of Jefferson Davis without bias. His research is thorough and detailed. He does not glorify Davis nor does he vilify him. This very readable book provides valuable insight into the times in which Davis lived and the part he played in the history of our country. The work is free of revisionism and correctness. I learned much from this extraordinary effort and was left to form my own opinions and conclusions. Thank you sincerely Dr. Cooper