President Jefferson Davis published his Short History in 1890, long after it had been proven that he was not complicit in crimes against Abraham Lincoln during the War Between the States.

This book is valuable for its history of the American Republic and how it came to be, the oppressive forces that drove the people of several states to seek their fortune away from the original Union, as well as a history of the Government of the Confederate States of America. With the ever increasing power of the Federal government today, this account deserves a careful read.

The principles of the American experiment were trampled by the Union government during the conflict. Lincoln's Executive Branch violated the sovereignty and soil of, not only Confederate States, but also of border states, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus throughout the Union and detained citizens without trial or indictment. Lincoln closed newspapers that didn't agree with his administration's views.

Written in two and three page chapters, this book does not deal overlong with specific battles but with the grander themes of government as it should be.

Reviewed by J.David Knepper on LinkedIn.