The Confederacy - (Reflections on the Civil War Era) by Paul D Escott (Hardcover)

About the Book

A sharp-edged and revealing account of the transforming struggle for Southern independence and the inherent contradictions that undermined that effort.
Paul Escott's The Confederacy: The Slaveholders' Failed Venture offers a unique and multifaceted perspective on the United States' most pivotal and devastating conflict, examining the course of the Civil War from the perspective of the Southern elite class, who were desperate to preserve the "peculiar institution" of its slave-based economy, yet dependent on ordinary Southerners, slaves, and women to sustain the fight for them.

Against the backdrop of the war's military drama and strategic dilemmas, The Confederacy brings into sharp focus the racial, class, gender, and political conflicts that helped destabilize the Confederacy from within. Along the way, Escott shows how time and time again, the South's political and economic elite made errors that further weakened a South already facing a Union army with greater numbers and firepower.

• Photographs, maps, and graphs enrich the text and illustrate changes in military strength, the importance of the Border South, and the loss of Confederate territory over time
• A bibliographical essay directs the reader to some of the most important and recent works in the vast historiography of the Civil War

Book Synopsis

A sharp-edged and revealing account of the transforming struggle for Southern independence and the inherent contradictions that undermined that effort.

Paul Escott's The Confederacy: The Slaveholders' Failed Venture offers a unique and multifaceted perspective on the United States' most pivotal and devastating conflict, examining the course of the Civil War from the perspective of the Southern elite class, who were desperate to preserve the "peculiar institution" of its slave-based economy, yet dependent on ordinary Southerners, slaves, and women to sustain the fight for them.

Against the backdrop of the war's military drama and strategic dilemmas, The Confederacy brings into sharp focus the racial, class, gender, and political conflicts that helped destabilize the Confederacy from within. Along the way, Escott shows how time and time again, the South's political and economic elite made errors that further weakened a South already facing a Union army with greater numbers and firepower.

Review Quotes

"Recommended. Most levels/libraries." --Choice

"Several fine titles have appeared in recent years in the Reflections on the Civil War Era series edited by John David Smith, and to them Paul D. Escott's The Confederacy makes a fine addition. ... An excellent and thoughtful work in brief compass, The Confederacy will be valuable to student and scholar alike." --Journal of American History

"With The Confederacy: The Slaveholders' Failed Venture, Paul D. Escott has written a clear, concise synthesis of the life cycle of the Confederacy based on an impressive array of primary sources and a review of current secondary literature" --Journal of Southern History

About the Author

Paul D. Escott is Reynolds Professor of History at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, and the author of several books on the South and the Civil War, including Praeger's Military Necessity: Civil-Military Relations in the Confederacy.