James Z. George: Mississippi's Great Commoner

ISBN-13: 9781628460629 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 252 str.

Timothy B. Smith

Opis

-When the Mississippi school boy is asked who is called the 'Great Commoner' of public life in his State, - wrote Mississippi's premier historian Dunbar Rowland in 1901, -he will unhesitatingly answer James Z. George.- While George's prominence has decreased through the decades since then, many modern historians still view him as a supremely important Mississippian, with one writing that George (1826-1897) was -Mississippi's most important Democratic leader in the late nineteenth century.- Certainly, the Mexican War veteran, prominent lawyer and planter, Civil War officer, Reconstruction leader, state Supreme Court chief justice, and Mississippi's longest serving United States senator in his day deserves a full biography. And, George's importance was greater than just on the state level as other Southerners copied his tactics to secure white supremacy in their own states. James Z. George: Mississippi's Great Commoner seeks to rectify the lack of attention to George's life. In doing so, this volume utilizes numerous sources never before or only slightly used, primarily a large collection of George's letters held by his descendents and never used by historians. Such wonderful sources allow a glimpse not only into his times, but perhaps more importantly an exploration of the man himself, his traits, personality, and ideas. The result is a picture of an extremely commonplace individual on the surface but an exceptionally complicated man underneath. James Z. George: Mississippi's Great Commoner will bring this important Mississippi leader of the nineteenth century back into the minds of twenty-first-century Mississippians.