Look Away!, William C. Davis
Look Away!, William C. Davis
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Look Away!
A History of the Confederate States of America

Author: William C. Davis

Narrator: Michael Beck

Unabridged: 23 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/08/2022


Synopsis

William C. Davis, one of America’s best Civil War historians, here offers a definitive portrait of the Confederacy unlike any that has come before. Drawing on decades of writing and research among an unprecedented number of archives, Look Away! tells the story of the Confederate States of America not simply as a military saga (although it is that), but rather as a full portrait of a society and incipient nation. The first history of the Confederacy in decades, the culmination of a great scholar’s career, Look Away! combines politics, economics, and social history to set a new standard for its subject.Previous histories have focused on familiar commanders such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, but Davis’s canvas is much broader. From firebrand politicians like Robert Barnwell Rhett and William L. Yancey, who pushed for secession long before the public supported it; to Dr. Samuel Cartwright, who persuaded many Southerners of the natural inferiority of their slaves; to the women of Richmond, who rioted over bread shortages in 1863, Davis presents a rich new face of the Confederate nation. He recounts familiar stories of battles won and lost, but also little-known economic stories of a desperate government that socialized the salt industry, home-front stories of the rangers and marauders who preyed on their fellow Confederates, and an account of the steady breakdown of law, culminating in near anarchy in some states. Never has the Confederacy been so vividly brought to life as a full society, riven with political and economic conflicts beneath its more loudly publicized military battles.Davis’s astonishingly thorough primary research has ranged across the 800-odd newspapers that were in operation during the war, but also across the personal papers of over a hundred Southern leaders and ordinary citizens. He quotes from letters and diaries throughout the narrative, revealing the Confederacy through the words of the Confederates themselves. Like any society, especially in the early stages of nation-building and the devastating stages of warfare, the Confederacy was not one thing but many things to many people. One thing, however, was shared by all: the belief that the South offered a necessary evolution of American democracy. Look Away! offers a dramatic and definitive account of one of America’s most searing episodes.

About William C. Davis

William Charles “Jack” Davis is a retired history professor who taught at Virginia Tech. An acclaimed expert on the Civil War, he has served on a number of advisory boards, including the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the Civil War Preservation Trust, the Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia, the National Park Service, as well as on the Lincoln Prize and Pulitzer Prize nominating juries.

About Michael Beck

Michael Beck is an American actor and audiobook narrator. He is best known for his role in the 1979 film The Warriors. He has narrated numerous novels by John Grisham, as well as Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz and My Life by Bill Clinton. He lives in California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on April 10, 2025

A fascinating premise, though I have to admit this book was far more dry and dense and academic than I expected. It doesn’t tell the story of the Confederate States of America so much as it imparts a whole lot of information about it. I wrestled with how to rate it, before settling on a strong three......more

Goodreads review by Ken on December 03, 2017

This book is a must-read for so many of us who don't really know what the Confederacy was about, or what it stood for. I know many people have a vested interest in making light of slavery, and making excuses for the Confederacy. I picked up this book figuring that there must be some positive reforms......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on March 23, 2011

Most histories of the American Civil War are very heavily skewed towards the Northern point of view, particularly in terms of the behind-the-scenes political machinations and general governance of the war. That makes this book all the more interesting since a lot of the information about the politic......more

Goodreads review by Luke on August 27, 2007

I was a bit disappointed in this book, I bought it expecting a civil and social history of the CSA told in a somewhat chronological manner, i.e as a story. Indeed, the book stats out that way, telling the story of secession and the formation of the provisional government in Mobile, but then just as......more

Goodreads review by Steven on October 22, 2009

Well known historian of the Civil War, William Davis, has written a nicely done political history of the Confederate States of America. While, as the author notes (page ix), "The campaigns and battles are here," the main thrust of the book is (page x) ". . .seeks to present a comprehensive view of e......more


Quotes

“A brilliant, perceptive, and masterful study of the Confederacy…Look Away! engrosses and it enlightens. It is a splendid book.” Jeffrey D. Wert author of Gettysburg: Day Three