Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy

This is the perfect non-fiction e-book. The text is almost typo-free, the table of contents is linked, the footnotes are linked, and (rarest of all) you can page through the footnotes to see, for example, what "id." or "Davis, p. 15" refers back to. As for the book itself, I found it fascinating in the details it provided of how the former U.S. Senators and Representatives of the initially seceding states put together a new government and got its operations off the ground. To my taste, too much space was devoted to describing Montgomery and its residents. But that's a minor quibble.

In "A Government of Our Own", William C. Davis provides a comprehensive and readable survey of the founding of the Confederacy. Davis looks at the creation of the Confederate constitution as well as the election of Jefferson Davis and the naming of his Cabinet. He also provides a good look at how the South moved towards war with the North. Davis is at both his best and worst when he offers quick biographical sketches of some of the leading political actors. He provides excellent sketches on Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens and a host of forgotten Southern statesmen. The problem is if Davis does not care for a politician, he often goes out of his way to bash them; this can be seen very clearly in the cases of Thomas Cobb and Robert Barnwell Rhett. Studies of the Confederacy focus on the military and not the government. This book fills a gap. Davis offers an excellent look at how the Confederate government was founded and the politics behind it.

Mr. Davis' well-earned reputation for writing excellence on the War Between the States shows yet again in this treatise on the early days of the Confederacy, the REAL reasons for secession, and the personalities who played pivotal roles in the birth of this brief-lived nation. If you get the chance to hear Mr. Davis lecture on this subject at a Civil War Round Table meeting, go. His speaking skills are as exceptional as his writing.

William C."The writing Machine" Davis has a very readable style that is so fluid you read without realizing it! He is a very interesting writer in that he brings color to history. Davis performs wonderfully on describing the factions existing within the legislative congress that created the confederacy. He draws from the letters of a great deal of the political giants of the provisional Confederate government and also uses a chronological approach to portray events of the creation of the Confederate government in Montgomery, Alabama. He concentrates mostly on the legislative events in the first few months of 1861; although, he descriptively and almost in detail paints a verbal portrait of the view of Montgomery. This book is definitely a good buy for someone wishing to learn about the Southern Confederate Constitutional convention!

I read this book this past year not having anything more than a general idea of Confederate history although I am a lawyer and very interested in U.S. constitutional legal history. I thought Prof. Davis did an excellent job of telling the story of the people and political forces which resulted ultimately in the writing and issuance of the Confederate Constitution. Davis's writing style is engaging, fast paced yet informative. The story "flowed," and the book was a "page turner." I felt he "got inside the head" of the principals of whom he wrote. I found that I particularly liked and was interested and intrigued by the figure of Alexander Stevens ("Little Aleck"). Davis's book made me want to read more about the Confederacy and about this remarkable Southern politician who served as the South's vice president