Battlefield Wanderings 2.0: 2016

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Embattled Rebel review

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Civil War by James McPherson

Like most other students of the war I read about Jefferson Davis before, both as a biography and also his presence in other books of the war. I've been to the Confederate White House in Richmond. I knew this book was a concise biography of Davis. The beginning made it seem like it would be less biographical and instead focus on analyzing his decisions. I was really excited to hear that. However the book did not live up to that early message. Instead it served as a short biography with only a tiny amount expended on analysis. I can easily pinpoint the amount as well, it was a 10 disc book, with 10 tracks each. The last 3 tracks focused on analysis. So 3%. Not what I was expecting.

Overall I'd say that yes this is a good book for someone wanting a concise biography of Davis. If instead you'd rather skip that and dive into analysis, assuming the reader has the background info for the analysis, then this book falls far short.