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.
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