"West Point graduate, secretary of war under President Pierce, U.S. senator from Mississippi - how was it that this statesman and patriot came to be president of the Confederacy, leading the struggle to destroy the United States? This is the question at the center of William Cooper's biography of Jefferson Davis. Basing his account on the massive archival record left by Davis and his family and associates, Cooper delves not only into the events of...

Presents a revisionist account of the period between Lincoln's election and the firing on Fort Sumter, evaluating the contributions of key figures and the circumstances that contributed to the Civil War's inevitability.

Reporting on attitudes and reactions in each of the eleven states that were to form the Confederacy, William Cooper traces and analyzes the history of southern politics from the formation of the Democratic party in the late 1820s to the cessation of the Democratic-Whig struggle in the 1850s. He bases his study on extensive research of regional political manuscripts and newspapers.

Profiles the sixth American president, sharing insight into his exposure to the ideas that influenced the Founding Fathers, discussing his European travels, and highlighting his views on slavery. "Why has John Quincy Adams been largely written out of American history when he is, in fact, our lost Founding Father? Long relegated to the sidelines of history as the hyperintellectual son of John and Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), has never...