On Look Away!

This is the gold-standard for histories of the Confederacy. I came to this book looking for an in-depth treatment of the Confederacy as a state in its own right, rather than a few states in insurrection as many histories of the US Civil War or general American histories depict it, and this work is broadly comprehensive. I learned a great deal about the construction of the Confederate constitution, political schisms within the Confederacy, as well as the positions of blacks, women, and poorer whites.

Naturally, the history of the Confederate States of America is generally painted, broadly, as military history. This is fully understandable in light of recognizing that its entire existence took place during four years of a brutal war. Yet, political and social histories are both critical, and this book fills those gaps for me.

Unfortunately, its weakness is that this book is a bit dense, making it a difficult slog and may come off as unapproachable towards readers who are unfamiliar with the subject at hand. In an ideal world, Davis would have spent more time editing and constructing a more fluid narrative to connect all the dots. Nonetheless, it is difficult to construct a narrative examining only four years, and this book instead functions well as a more analytical work. Highly recommend this one in light of current debates over Confederate “heritage” and its historical memory. It’s nothing short of illuminating.