A decade after his release from federal prison, the 67-year-old Jefferson Davis--ex-president of the Confederacy, the "Southern Lincoln," popularly regarded as a martyr to the Confederate cause--began work on his monumental Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Motivated partially by his deep-rooted antagonism toward his enemies (both the Northern victors and his Southern detractors), partially by his continuing obsession with the "cause," and partially by his desperate pecuniary and physical condition, Davis devoted three years and extensive research to the writing of what he...