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A Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy Hardcover – September 1, 1994

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

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Chronicling four decisive months in 1861, the unique story of the birth of a nation within a nation examines the leaders of the Confederacy--from those who wanted war to those who wanted reconciliation--and their struggle to form a southern nation.
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

For four crucial months in 1861, delegates from all over the South met in Montgomery, Alabama, to establish a new nation. Davis (Jefferson Davis: The Man and the Hour, LJ 11/15/91) tells their story in this new work, another example of Davis's fine storytelling skill and an indispensable guide to understanding the formation of the Confederate government. Among the issues Davis examines are revising the Constitution to meet Southern needs, banning the importation of slaves, and determining whether the convention could be considered a congress. Also revealed are the many participating personalities, their ambitions and egos, politicking and lobbying for the presidency of the new nation, and the nature of the city of Montgomery itself. Not many books cover this period. A valuable and enjoyable addition to Confederate history and the background of the Civil War.
Robert A. Curtis, Taylor Memorial P.L., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This excellent book is much like Catherine Drinker Bowen's classic Miracle at Philadelphia (1966), which in almost minute-by-minute fashion recounted the proceedings whereby representatives of the 13 newly independent states met to draw up the Constitution, under which our nation is still organized. Davis, a veteran writer on the Civil War period, whose previous book was the well-presented Jefferson Davis (1991), follows the discussions that, in a four-month period in 1861, created a constitution under which the seceded southern states formed a nation-state. The book's greatest asset--in addition to providing an engrossing chronicle of the nation building that went on in Montgomery, Alabama, over the course of those several weeks--is the clarification of the issues surrounding secession and why the endeavor in Montgomery, whose purpose was not to scrap the U.S. Constitution but simply to adapt it to the needs of the southern states, did not succeed in devising a sovereign nation that could last longer than a split second. Handled well here, too, is the way Davis brings back to life and breath the personalities involved, particularly Jefferson Davis, the provisionally appointed and then duly elected chief executive of the Confederacy. A special book for all U.S. history collections. Brad Hooper

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press; First Edition (September 1, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 550 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0029077354
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0029077351
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.56 x 1.73 x 9.52 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

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William C. Davis
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4.7 out of 5 stars
23 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They appreciate the detailed information about the early days of the movement. The author is described as a careful scholar and an expert in the field.

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4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They appreciate the detailed information about the early days of the movement. The text is typo-free, the table of contents is linked, and the footnotes are accurate. Readers describe it as a worthwhile read and the author's best work.

"This is the perfect non-fiction e-book. The text is almost typo-free, the table of contents is linked, the footnotes are linked, and..." Read more

"...This may well be his best work. The book is not only an easy read but contains facts that even most polished Civil War buffs will not have..." Read more

"Good book by Davis that goes into a wealth of detail about the early days of the Confederate Government’s existence." Read more

"...sheer amount of information Davis has assembled makes this book a worthwhile read for those interested in the "Civil War" or the Confederacy,..." Read more

3 customers mention "Detail"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides detailed information and facts. They describe it as an easy read written by a careful scholar.

"...As for the book itself, I found it fascinating in the details it provided of how the former U.S. Senators and Representatives of the initially..." Read more

"Davis is a prolific writer, careful scholar, and one who has addressed the birth of the Confederacy better than others...." Read more

"...Aside from this lame beginning, this is a very detailed book, perhaps too detailed...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2023
    Great source history of all Americans history This Rebellion was World history.
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022
    good in fo on the government our families in south tried to serve houner and preserve
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2009
    This is the perfect non-fiction e-book. The text is almost typo-free, the table of contents is linked, the footnotes are linked, and (rarest of all) you can page through the footnotes to see, for example, what "id." or "Davis, p. 15" refers back to.

    As for the book itself, I found it fascinating in the details it provided of how the former U.S. Senators and Representatives of the initially seceding states put together a new government and got its operations off the ground. To my taste, too much space was devoted to describing Montgomery and its residents. But that's a minor quibble.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2004
    William C."The writing Machine" Davis has a very readable style that is so fluid you read without realizing it! He is a very interesting writer in that he brings color to history. Davis performs wonderfully on describing the factions existing within the legislative congress that created the confederacy. He draws from the letters of a great deal of the political giants of the provisional Confederate government and also uses a chronological approach to portray events of the creation of the Confederate government in Montgomery, Alabama. He concentrates mostly on the legislative events in the first few months of 1861; although, he descriptively and almost in detail paints a verbal portrait of the view of Montgomery. This book is definitely a good buy for someone wishing to learn about the Southern Confederate Constitutional convention!
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2014
    Davis is a prolific writer, careful scholar, and one who has addressed the birth of the Confederacy better than others. This may well be his best work. The book is not only an easy read but contains facts that even most polished Civil War buffs will not have discovered. The collector who is building a personal collection needs to include this work in order to represent best of the best works on each phase of the Civil War.

    ----M.B. Maxian
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018
    Good book by Davis that goes into a wealth of detail about the early days of the Confederate Government’s existence.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2018
    On time, as described.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2011
    After reading "A GOVERNMENT OF OUR OWN" I came away with an entirely new view of the Confederacy and the Civil War.

    William C. Davis has convinced me that the South's heart was not in the Civil War despite the vast sacrifice of blood and treasure that Southerners made in establishing the CSA and fighting for their independence. Subsequent reading of other authors has tended to confirm this outlook for me.

    "A GOVERNMENT OF OUR OWN" discusses the Montgomery Convention of 1861, that ad hoc body of delegates who formed the political framework of the Confederacy. Many historians are impressed that the men in Montgomery formed in scant weeks what the Founders in Philadelphia took months to construct, but the Montgomery group had a working template in the United States of America. Indeed, some of them wanted to call their country the "United States of America."

    As reflected in "A GOVERNMENT OF OUR OWN" the South simply was not different enough from the rest of the Union to maintain its autonomy for more than an historical eyeblink. Davis shows us that the South's national institutions---it's Congress, it's Presidency, it's Constitution, it's laws, it's national symbols, and it's worldview---were essentially identical to the North's, but for it's "peculiar institution," Slavery, and a particular sense of "Southern Honor" that pervaded it's oligarchy.

    In short, the South went out of the Union because it was offended by what was perceived as congenital Northern boorishness. There was a fear that the North's rapidly growing population would overwhelm the South in Congress. Furthermore, Southerners believed that the more heterogeneous North was not the true heir of the Spirit of '76, but that they were. Hence, the decision to maintain July 4th and Washington's Birthday as it's national holidays. An essentially conservative society, the South may have allowed the rhetoric of "fire-eaters" to stir its passions, but as Davis illustrates, these same men were marginalized politically after the die was cast.

    In 1861, most Southerners (including those at Montgomery) failed to recognize that secession would necessarily lead to war, and few of them wanted war, despite their loud talk. They perceived themselves not as enemies of the United States but as a body of true American patriots "taking back America." Had they been able to dominate the North politically (as had been the case until the 1850s) their capital would have remained Washington. The quick and relatively peaceful acquiescence of defeated Confederates into becoming U.S. citizens again in 1865 is possibly the strongest indicator of how historically impotent the C.S.A. really was "on the ground" even though a powerful sense of Southern uniqueness still exists.

    Does this mean that the Civil War was unnecessary and anomalous? Probably not. The ugly irony of human bondage existing in a land dedicated to liberty, evaded through compromise for so long, had come to the apex of national consciousness (both Union and Confederate); the issue of whether the nation was to be a loosely organized agrarian society or a more tightly bound industrial power had become a sticking point; and the hypothesis that disaffection could influence disunion had to be tested.

    In 1861, the odds were that the United States would not only not survive, but that it would be riven not into two nations but balkanized into numerous regional republics. Very sadly, an ocean of blood had to be spilt in order to confirm that the nation was viable.

    Most Civil War books focus on the military aspects of the war. A few address social causes and changes. Very few look at the Civil War from a political standpoint. As one of the few, "A GOVERNMENT OF OUR OWN" is an essential addition to your Civil War bookshelf.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Werner Schneider
    5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable analysis of a very special couple of months
    Reviewed in Germany on April 14, 2021
    This book describes on a little over 400 pages a critical period in American history. A number of more or less able men came together in Montgomery, Alabama to create a new country out of scratch. It's remarkable in which extreme details the author brings these four months to life, including a detailed description of how the city looked like 160 years and what went on in the local hotels, which were comparably few and became more and more crowded and expensive the more "official" people arrived from anywhere in the south. What kept these men together was more or less only one topic: Slavery. And it's an interesting perception that many of the few free but dramatically suppressed African Americans and also many slaves were so brainwashed that they openly supported the secession and the "peculiar institution", even investing their savings in the upcoming civil war, speaking out against abolitionists. Richmond, Virginia only became the Confederacy's capital instead of Montgomery when the home-state of the early presidents seceded late from the US, but mainly for the reason that many congressmen didn't like the climate of Alabama, which infuriated a few people there. How Jefferson Davis became president and not one of the ultra-radicals like Yancey is described in vivid detail, but Davis' shortcomings are not left out, especially in choosing his secretaries. All but one didn't make it until Appomattox Court House. The book concludes with an epilogue, when Davis for the first returned to Montgomery in April 1886, 25 years after he was elected president, still at total odds with most surviving confederate generals. It includes the destiny of all major players during these late winter and spring-months in 1861, none having come out unharmed from the conflict. Very worthy book for those who are interested in the Civil War, but know little yet of the very beginning of the Confederacy before the First Battle of Bull Run.