Issue #0

The iron will of Jefferson Davis

Plot

This absorbing biography brings to life one of the most enigmatic figures in American history—Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.Cass Canficld traces Davis's turbulent career as West Point graduate, officer in the Mexican War, plantation owner, member of Congress, Confederate Senator, and successor to John C. Calhoun. He asks a number of critical questions. What were the political con-sequences of Davis's indomitable will and quick temper? What of Davis's relationship with the women in his life: Sarah Knox Taylor, who died three months after their marriage, and his second wife, Varina Howell, a forceful woman with a will that matched her husband's? How did the great forces of the time—from the violent nationalism in the American West to the anxiety of English millionaires dependent on Southern cotton—influence the outcome of the Civil War?