{"product_id":"the-union-that-shaped-the-william-c-davis-9780700610884","title":"The Union That Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens","description":"One was a robust charmer given to fits of passion, whose physical appeal could captivate women as easily as cajole colleagues. The other was a frail, melancholy man of quiet intellect, whose ailments drove him eventually to alcohol and drug addiction. Born into different social classes, they were as opposite as men could be. Yet these sons of Georgia, Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, became fast friends and together changed the course of the South. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWriting with the style and authority that has made him one of our most popular historians of the Civil War, William C. Davis has written a biography of a friendship that captures the Confederacy in microcosm. He tells how Toombs and Stephens dominated the formation of the new nation and served as its vice president and secretary of state. After years of disillusionment, each abandoned participation in the government and left to its own fate a Confederacy that would not dance to their tune. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDavis traces this unlikely relationship from its early days in the Georgia legislature through the trials of secession and war, revealing how both men persevered during the war and developed a deep animosity for Jefferson Davis. He then chronicles their postwar lives up to the emotional moment when Toombs stood eulogizing his long-time friend at his funeral, just four months after Stephens was elected governor of the Georgia they had loved as much as one another. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing extensively on primary sources, including Stephens's voluminous letters and Toombs' widely scattered papers, Davis tells how two men of different temperaments remained friends, out of step with all but a few and occasionally even with each other. He concentrates on their Confederate years, when the fraternity they shared had its greatest impact, to show how they embodied both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Confederacy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhile there are biographies of each man, none convey the significance--or the depth--of their friendship. Davis shows us how they loved the South as it once was, the Union as they thought it ought to have been, and the Confederacy of their dreams that never came to be. They lost all three, but through five decades of crisis, they never failed each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e William C. Davis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 070061088X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780700610884\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Kansas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/24\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.24lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.29h x 6.33w x 1.11d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/15\/2001 pg. 229\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/12\/2001 pg. 75\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2001 pg. 1350\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2001 pg. 113\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2001 pg. 576\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/11\/2001","brand":"William C. Davis","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":45898201530623,"sku":"9780700610884","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6e4d8a6a-1209-4be9-882c-baf9e3164f41.jpg?v=1721375746","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-union-that-shaped-the-william-c-davis-9780700610884","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}