William C. Davis – författare

This work examines three advanced Latin American republics with long records of democracy, political stability, and economic prosperity which degenerated into instability and military dictatorship—and issues a warning for other democratic peoples. Although not beset by overpopulation, serious racial diversity, or widespread illiteracy, in recent decades the people of Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile destroyed much of the good life and many of the freedoms they formerly enjoyed. Electing too few statesmen and too many politicians, they demanded more from their governments than they were willing to pay for. Rejecting sound economic policies, they engaged in unrealistic practices which led to exorbitant inflation. In contrast to traditional respect for individual freedoms, the military governments they brought in to solve their problems committed gross violations of human rights. The political and economic blunders and their unfortunate consequences should serve as a warnings to the citizens of all democracies.

No American president has enjoyed as intimate a relationship with the soldiers in his army as did the man they called "Father Abraham." In Lincoln's Men, historian William C. Davis draws on thousands of unpublished letters and diaries -- the voices of the volunteers -- to tell the hidden story of how a new and untested president became "Father" throughout both the army and the North as a whole. How did Lincoln inspire the faith and courage of so many shattered men, as they wandered the inferno of Shiloh or were entrenched in the siege of Vicksburg? Why did soldiers visiting Washington feel free to stroll into the White House as if it were their own home? In this through and authoritative work, Davis removes layers of mythmaking to recapture the real moods and feelings of an army facing one of history's bloodiest conflicts. Lincoln's Men casts a new light on our most famous president and on America's revolution -- on our country's father and its rebirth.

Born into different social classes, Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, became fast friends and together changed the course of the South. They dominated the formation of the Confederacy and served as its vice president and secretary of state.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Pulitzer Prize nominee William C. Davis has been one of our best writers on the Civil War. His books—including Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol; Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour; and "A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy—have garnered numerous awards and enlightened and entertained an avid readership. The Cause Lost extends that tradition of excellence with provocative new insights into the myths and realities of an endlessly fascinating subject.In these pages, Davis brings into sharp focus the facts and fictions of the South's victories and defeats, its tenacious struggle to legitimize its cause and defeat an overpowering enemy, and its ultimate loss of will. He debunks long-standing legends, offers irrefutable evidence explaining Confederate actions, and contemplates the idealism, naiveté, folly, and courage of the military leadership and would-be founding fathers.Among the most misunderstood, Davis contends, was Jefferson Davis. Often branded as enigmatic and incompetent, the Confederate president was simply a decent and committed leader whose mistakes were magnified by the war's extraordinary demands. Davis scrutinizes Jefferson Davis' relationship with his generals-most of whom were unproved talents or cronies with proven deficiencies-and reveals why only Robert E. Lee succeeded in winning Davis' confidence through flattery, persuasion, and a sense of responsibility. He also examines the myths and memories of the nearly deified Stonewall Jackson and John C. Breckinridge, the only effective Confederate secretary of war.Davis also illustrates why the cause of the war—a subject of long-standing controversy—boils down to the single issue of slavery; why Southerners, ninety percent of whom didn't own slaves, were willing to join in the battle to defend their homeland; how the personalities, tactics, and styles of the armies in the turbulent West differed greatly from those in the East; what real or perceived turning points influenced Southern decision making; and how mythology and misinterpretations have been perpetuated through biography, history, literature, and film.Revealing the Confederacy's myths for what they really are, Davis nevertheless illustrates how much those myths inform our understanding of the Civil War and its place in Southern and American culture.

William C. Davis, "one of the best and most prolific historians of the American Civil War" (James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom), offers a definitive portrait of the Confederacy unlike any other. Drawing on decades of writing and research among an unprecedented number of archives, ranging from the 800-odd newspapers in operation during the war to the personal writings of more than 100 leaders and common citizens, Davis reveals the Confederacy through the words of the Confederates themselves. Look Away! recounts all the epic sagas -- as well as those little-known and long-forgotten -- about a desperate government that socialized the salt industry, rangers and marauders who preyed on their fellow Confederates, and the systematic breakdown of law and order in some states. A dramatic, definitive account of one of our nation's most searing episodes, Look Away! shows us a South divided against itself, unable to stand.

For soldiers in all wars, mealtime is a focal point of the day. Armies do indeed "march on their stomachs," as Napoleon said. Soldiers of the Civil War armies, many away from home and mothers' and wives' cooking for the first time, were thrown back on their own resources both to prepare their own meals and often to stock their larders. No one in America, North or South, was prepared for the massive task of acquiring and distributing the uncountable tons of foodstuffs necessary to keep almost three million men fed. And yet food and mealtime were the dominant topics of interest and conversation, and the fodder for a great deal of the war lore. A Taste for War looks at what soldiers ate during the Civil War, where they got it, how they prepared it, and what they thought of it. Leavened with first-person accounts of finding and preparing food, A Taste for War includes more than two hundred recipes drawn from soldiers' letters and diaries and from the few cookery guides furnished them by their governments. The recipes are adapted with instructions for modern preparation that allow readers to recreate the distinctive flavors and aromas of the Civil War.

From the first passage in William C. Davis' book about ""the twilight of America's innocence: to the last, the reader is carried through what many in the 1860s believed would be the only major conflict between North and South. So optimistic were the people in Washington that a crowd of civilians came from the city with picnic hampers to witness the crushing defeat of the upstart ""rebels."" The following day, however, the mood would shatter in a battle that confounded the expectations of both sides, the first Battle at Bull Run.It was a training ground for some of America's most colourful military figures: P.G.T. Beauregard, Joe Johnson, Irvin McDowell, and ""Stonewall"" Jackson. It also marked the first strategic use of railroads and was perhaps the first time the horrors of battle were photographed for the people back home. Drawing from a wealth of material, old letters, journals, memoirs, and military records, Davis brings to life a vivid and vital chapter in American history.

One was called ""a tin can on a shingle""; the other, ""a half-submerged crocodile."" Yet, on a March day in 1862 in Hampton Roads, Virginia, after a five-hour duel, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia(formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack) were to change the course of not only the Civil War but also naval warfare forever. Using letters, diaries, and memoirs of men who lived through the epic battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack and of those who witnessed it from afar, William C. Davis documents and analyses this famous confrontation of the first two modern warships. The result is a full-scale history that is as exciting as a novel. Besides a thorough discussion of the designs of each ship, Davis portrays come of the men involved in the building and operation of America's first ironclads, John Ericsson, supreme egoist and engineering genius who designed the Monitor; John Brooke, designer of the Virginia; John Worden, the well-loved captain of the Monitor; Captain Franklin Buchanan of the Virginia; and a host of other men on both Union and Confederate sides whose contributions make this history as much a story of men as of ships and war.

In this book, William C. Davis narrates one of the most memorable and crucial of the engagements fought for control of the strategically vital Shenandoah Valley - a battle that centered on the farming community of New Market. There, Confederate forces under the command of General John C. Breckinridge defeated the numerically superior army commanded by the Union's hapless General Franz Sigel. Outnumbered by a margin of four to one at the beginning of the conflict, Breckinridge was desperate for additional men. He sent out a call for assistance to the Virginia Military Institute, and the school responded by sending 258 members of its Corps of Cadets into battle - some of them as young as fifteen years old. In the action that followed, 57 of them would be killed or wounded.In vivid detail, The Battle of New Market tells of Breckinridge's audacious domination of the battlefield and of Sigel's tragic ineptitude; of the opposing troops, both seasoned and untried; of the fate of prisoners and of the wounded; and, perhaps most memorably, of the gallantry of the cadets who marched from the classrooms of VMI directly into the heat of battle.

Historians have broadened the somewhat simplistic interpretation of the Civil War as a battle between the North and the South by revealing the “many Souths” that made up the Confederacy, but the “North” has remained largely undifferentiated as a geopolitical term. In this welcome collection, seven Civil War scholars offer a unique regional perspective on the Civil War by examining how a specific group of Northerners— Midwesterners, known as Westerners and Middle Westerners during the 1860s—experienced the war on the home front—experienced the war on the home front. From the exploitation of Confederate prisoners in Ohio to wartime college enrollment in Michigan, these essays reveal how Midwestern men, women, families, and communities became engaged in myriad war-related activities and support.Agriculture figures prominently in the collection, with several contributors exploring the agricultural power of the region and the impact of the war on farming, farm families, and farm women. Contributors also consider student debates and reactions to questions of patriotism, the effect of the war on military families’ relationships, issues of women’s loyalty and deference to male authority, as well as the treatment of political dissent and dissenters. Bringing together an assortment of home front topics from a variety of fresh perspectives, this collection offers a view of the Civil War that is unabashedly Midwestern.

More Civil War battles were fought on Virginian soil than on that of any other Confederate state. No state suffered more from invasion and occupation than the Old Dominion, and none witnessed as much of the war. Virginia's story of the Civil War stands unique among the Confederate States. Virginia at War, 1861 looks at Virginia on the eve of secession, detailing the activities of the convention that finally took the state out of the Union and explaining how Richmond became the capital of the new Confederate nation. Chapters in the book examine Virginia's private state army and its little-known state navy, as well as the impact that secession and the first year of the war had on Virginia's black community, both slave and free. Virginia was the only Confederate state to suffer an internal secession, and the story of that "other Virginia" that broke away and became West Virginia is explored in all its bizarre complexity. Virginia at War, 1861 is the first in a new five-volume series, edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson Jr. for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. Each volume will bring together leading Civil War historians to study one year of the Civil War in Virginia.

A History Book Club SelectionA Military History Book Club Selection Virginia emerged from the year 1861 in much the same state of uncertainty and confusion as the rest of the Confederacy. While the North was known to be rebuilding its army, no one could be sure if the northern people and government were willing to continue the war. Virginians' expectations for the coming year did not prepare them for what was about to happen, for in 1862 the war became earnest and real, and the Old Dominion became then and thereafter the major battleground of the war in the East. The landscape and the people of Virginia were a part of the battlefield, and as the contributors to Virginia at War, 1862 attest, no individual and no aspect of life in the Commonwealth could escape the war's impact. William C. Davis is director of programs at the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.

The fascinating third book in the Virginia at War series focuses on the Virginia experience at mid-conflict. The collection provides a comprehensive overview of the conflict's impact on children, religion, and newly freed slaves. Also included are essays that probe the South's view of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War careers of the Hatfields and the McCoys. The 1863 installment of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire's valuable Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War rounds out the collection.

The fourth book in the Virginia at War series casts a special light on vital home front matters in Virginia during 1864. Following a year in which only one major battle was fought on Virginia soil, 1864 brought military campaigning to the Old Dominion. For the first time during the Civil War, the majority of Virginia's forces fought inside the state's borders. Yet soldiers were a distinct minority among the Virginians affected by the war. In Virginia at War, 1864, scholars explore various aspects of the civilian experience in Virginia including transportation and communication, wartime literature, politics and the press, higher education, patriotic celebrations, and early efforts at reconstruction in Union-occupied Virginia. The volume focuses on the effects of war on the civilian infrastructure as well as efforts to maintain the Confederacy. As in previous volumes, the book concludes with an edited and annotated excerpt of the Judith Brockenbrough McGuire diary.

By January 1865, most of Virginia's schools were closed, many newspapers had ceased publication, businesses suffered, and food was scarce. Having endured major defeats on their home soil and the loss of much of the state's territory to the Union army, Virginia's Confederate soldiers began to desert at higher rates than at any other time in the war, returning home to provide their families with whatever assistance they could muster. It was a dark year for Virginia.Virginia at War, 1865 closely examines the end of the Civil War in the Old Dominion, delivering a striking depiction of a state ravaged by violence and destruction. In the final volume of the Virginia at War series, editors William C. Davis and James I. Robertson Jr. have once again assembled an impressive collection of essays covering topics that include land operations, women and families, wartime economy, music and entertainment, the demobilization of Lee's army, and the war's aftermath. The volume ends with the final installment of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire's popular and important Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War. Like the previous four volumes in the series, Virginia at War, 1865 provides valuable insights into the devastating effects of the war on citizens across the state.

John C. Breckinridge rose to prominence during one of the most turbulent times in our nation's history. Widely respected, even by his enemies, for his dedication to moderate liberalism, Breckinridge's charisma and integrity led to his election as Vice President at age 35, the youngest ever in America's history. After a decade of being out-of-print, Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol returns as the quintessential biography of one of Kentucky's great moderates. Historian William C. Davis sheds light on Breckinridge's life throughout three key periods, spanning his career as a celebrated statesman, heroic soldier, and proponent of the reconciliation. A true Kentucky hero, "Old Breck's" bravery in battle, dedication to the pursuit of truth, and unique ability to win the loyalty of others rank him alongside Henry Clay and Simon Kenton. Drawing from a remarkable collection of sources, including previously unknown documents and letters, as well as the papers of his associates and extensive aid from the Breckinridge family, Davis presents the legacy of a man often overlooked.

Thomas Reid (1710-96) was one of the most daring and original thinkers of the eighteenth century. His work became the cornerstone of the Scottish School of Common Sense Philosophy, and was highly influential in nineteenth-century America; it also anticipated the thinking of such twentieth-century figures as Moore and Wittgenstein. Now, after a long period of neglect, his philosophy is again the subject of increasing attention across the world. For Reid, knowing about ethics is a matter of having 'good evidence' supplied by a sense-like moral faculty. William Davis's book shows how such a view can be both consistent and plausible in the twenty-first century. "Thomas Reid's Ethics" begins by characterizing the state of moral epistemology at the time when Reid was writing. It goes on to recount Reid's central claims about the moral sense, and describes the various problems that confront those who would explain and defend his views. Davis lays the foundation for resolving these difficulties by detailing an epistemological conception of evidence, which parallels the legal conception of evidence used by the Scottish courts of Reid's day.He, then, shows how Reid's claims about evidence and self-evidence are best understood in light of this legal model. The book concludes by responding to recent worries about 'moral sense' theories, and offers a final assessment of the success of Reid's ethical project. The book will be of substantial interest not only to Reid scholars and historians of philosophy, but also to specialists and students in contemporary ethics.

Monoclonal Antibody Protocols provides researchers in biomedical, agricultural, and biological science with a set of detailed, easy-to-follow methods for developing and using monoclonal antibodies. The protocols emphasize techniques that optimize the outgrowth of hybridomas from primary cultures of fused cells and the use of an alternative, electric-field-mediated cell fusion technique to increase the yield of hybridomas. The book stresses antibodies produced in mice, but includes methods of producing xenogeneic hybrids that yield human, bovine, equine, and porcine monoclonal antibodies. With its detailed instructions, its comments on how to alter the various steps of a protocol in order to accommodate different materials, and its hints and tips that often make the difference between success and failure, Monoclonal Antibody Protocols provides you with a ready and indispensable source of information for preparing and using monoclonal antibodies successfully in your laboratory.

Between March 1863 and July 1865, Confederate newlyweds Brigadier General Gabriel C. Wharton and Anne Radford Wharton wrote 524 letters, and all survived, unknown until now. Separated by twenty years in age and differing opinions on myriad subjects, these educated and articulate Confederates wrote frankly and perceptively on their Civil War world. Sharing opinions on generals and politicians, the course of the war, the fate of the Confederacy, life at home, and their wavering loyalties, the Whartons explored the shifting gender roles brought on by war, changing relations between slave owners and enslaved people, the challenges of life behind Confederate lines, the pain of familial loss, the definitions of duty and honor, and more.Featuring one of the fullest known sets of correspondence by a high-level officer and his wife, this volume reveals the Whartons' wartime experience from their courtship in the spring of 1863 to June 1865, when Gabriel Wharton swore loyalty to the United States and accepted parole before returning home. William C. Davis and Sue Heth Bell's thoughtful editing guides readers into this world of experience and its ongoing historical relevance.

Between March 1863 and July 1865, Confederate newlyweds Brigadier General Gabriel C. Wharton and Anne Radford Wharton wrote 524 letters, and all survived, unknown until now. Separated by twenty years in age and differing opinions on myriad subjects, these educated and articulate Confederates wrote frankly and perceptively on their Civil War world. Sharing opinions on generals and politicians, the course of the war, the fate of the Confederacy, life at home, and their wavering loyalties, the Whartons explored the shifting gender roles brought on by war, changing relations between slave owners and enslaved people, the challenges of life behind Confederate lines, the pain of familial loss, the definitions of duty and honor, and more.Featuring one of the fullest known sets of correspondence by a high-level officer and his wife, this volume reveals the Whartons' wartime experience from their courtship in the spring of 1863 to June 1865, when Gabriel Wharton swore loyalty to the United States and accepted parole before returning home. William C. Davis and Sue Heth Bell's thoughtful editing guides readers into this world of experience and its ongoing historical relevance.

This is the diary of John S. Jackman, a Confederate soldier in the Orphan Brigade, a regiment in Tennessee's 9th Kentucky Brigade which participated in most of the major Western campaigns of the American Civil War. Jackman served as a regimental clerk, and faithfully recorded his impressions.

Some people called Robert Barnwell Rhett ""the Father of Secession"". This book illuminates Rhett's role in secession's time and passage. It tells of Rhett's interest in secession doctrine as early as 1828 and his outspoken support of disunion fully a quarter-century before 1861.