The Confederate Nation

First published in 1979, The Confederate Nation is to this day recognized as the standard history of the Confederacy. This highly readable and fascinating account of the rise and fall of the South during the Civil War has had an immeasurable influence on all subsequent histories.

In The Confederate Nation, Thomas integrates the course of Southern military fortunes with the ideals that shaped them. He deftly conveys a sense of how the war itself deteriorated from a quixotic enterprise to a brutal struggle for survival. With a new introduction by the author, this is an unforgettable portrait of the movement that nearly divided a nation.

Emory M. Thomas is Regents Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. Among his eight books are biographies of Confederate generals J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee, which The New York Review of Books called “the best and most balanced of the Lee biographies.” He lives in Athens, GA.

“It is a measure of Thomas’s continuing influence that The Confederate Nation has yet to be superseded as the standard title on the subject. Thomas has left an indelible mark on the historiography of the Confederacy. ” — Journal of Southern History (2007)