[rustbucket]

In the War for Southern Independence, revisionist history start with Alexander H. Stephens book, "A Constitutional View of the War Between the States" (1868) and Jefferson Davis's book "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" (1881).

I've seen the Stephens book but not the Davis one. In what way were these books revisionist?

[capitan_refugio]

Believe it or not, the Davis book is in print! Paperback edition with a forward my James McPherson, of all people!

[capitan_refugio]

In comparing the pre-secession rhetoric, as quoted in southern newspapers, speeches made by the principle politicians responsible for secession, comments on the floor of the House and the Senate, comments made in the CSA legislatures, and in the private correspondence of notable confederates (Jefferson Davis has some 50,000 documents which survive him), you will perceive a shift in the explanations for secession and war.

This is nothing unusual. Hindsight is 20-20 they say. You always try to put your best foot forward, especially if you were on the losing side.

Let me give you a case in point. Davis wrote afterward that the CSA had no aims at expansion or ambitions beyond their borders. Yet, documentation shows that they clearly had their eyes on New Mexico and Arizona Territory, the Indian lands later known as Oklahoma, as well as Kansas, Nebraska, and other plains states. After all, the CSA did accept representative from Missouri and Kentucky - states that did not formally secede.

[capitan_refugio]

I also looked up a quote I had saved from an essay by M. T. Owens:

"The most comprehensive articulation of the view that Southern secession was a legitimate constitutional act is found in A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States, written by Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, published shortly after the war. A Constitutional View purports to be a comprehensive treatment of American constitutional history. But its comprehensiveness is illusory. It soon dissolves into a hash of selective evidence and sleight of hand whereby the natural right to revolution embodied in the Declaration of Independence is transformed into a constitutional right to destroy the Constitution. A Constitutional View is, alas, another refrain in a song composed and performed by John C. Calhoun and the South Carolina nullifiers."

[Grand Old Partisan]

"I've seen the Stephens book but not the Davis one. In what way were these books revisionist?"

They laud the rebellious Democrats of the Confederacy.