Overview
Preeminent Civil War historian Frank Vandiver always longed to see an interpretive biography of Jefferson Davis. Finally, more than twenty years after Vandiver expressed that wish, publication of Jefferson Davis, Unconquerable Heart makes such an interpretive biography available.
Felicity Allen begins this monumental work with Davis's political imprisonment at the end of the Civil War and masterfully flashes back to his earlier life, interweaving Davis's private life as a schoolboy, a Mississippi planter, a husband, a father, and a political leader. She follows him from West Point through army service on the frontier, his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, his regimental command in the Mexican War, his service as U.S. secretary of war and senator, and his term as president of the Confederate States of America.
Although Davis's family is the nexus of this biography, friends and enemies also play major roles. Among his friends intimately met in this book are such stellar figures as Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert E. Lee.
With the use of contemporary accounts and Davis's own correspondence, Jefferson Davis, Unconquerable Heart casts new light upon this remarkable man, thawing the icy image of Davis in many previous accounts. Felicity Allen shows a strong, yet gentle man; a stern soldier who loved horses, guns, poetry, and children; a master of the English language, with a dry wit; a man of powerful feelings who held them in such tight control that he was considered cold; and a home-loving Mississippian who was drawn into a vortex of national events and eventual catastrophe. At all times, "duty, honor, country" ruled his mind. Davis's Christian view of life runs like a thread throughout the book, binding together his devotion to God, his family, and the land.
Jefferson Davis, Unconquerable Heart brings Davis to life in a way that has never been done before. The variety of his experience, the breadth of his learning, and the consistency of his beliefs make this historical figure eminently worth knowing.
Synopsis
Allen, an independent scholar, begins this extensive biography of Jefferson Davis with his political imprisonment at the end of the Civil War. She flashes back to his earlier life as a schoolboy, a Mississipi planter, a husband, a father, and a military and political leader. Drawing upon contemporary accounts and Davis's own correspondence, she counteracts the icy image presented in other accounts, revealing how at all times duty, honor, and country ruled his mind, and how the home-loving Mississippian was drawn into a vortex of national events and eventual catastrophe. Contains several b&w photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Publishers Weekly
As her title suggests, Allen, an independent scholar, has written a sentimental account of the life of the president of the Confederate States of America. Davis's wife, Varina, along with their children, play a central role in a narrative that draws heavily on Davis's own correspondence. Allen depicts Davis as a caring husband, a loving father, a virtuous public servant and the very embodiment of Southern chivalry. This is anything but a critical biography; what Allen strives earnestly to convey is the strict moral code that Davis lived by, a code emphasizing honesty, self-sacrifice, loyalty to family, physical and moral courage and respect for Southern tradition. Davis was, foremost, a soldier; ironically, the tactical and technical innovations that he introduced at the antebellum War Department greatly enhanced the preparedness of the Union army, thus contributing to the defeat of his beloved Confederacy. As a senator from Mississippi, Davis was at the boiling center of the slavery debate, arguing that servitude civilized and Christianized African-Americans and was sanctioned by both the Bible and the Constitution. Allen doesn't contribute much to our larger understanding of the period; the political "crisis" of the 1850s, with Davis heading the Southern faction in the Senate, has been better described elsewhere, as has the complex military history of the Civil War. What Allen contributes is an emphasis on Davis the family man and Davis the martyred symbol of a vanquished but proud and unrepentant South. While she largely succeeds in portraying Davis as a noble individual and as the personification of Southern "glory," she's unable to solve the ultimate conundrum: how a supposedly great man could devote his public life to defending slavery. 72 illus. not seen by PW. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.