Senator James Murray Mason: Defender Old South

by Robert W. Young

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087049998X
• ISBN13: 9780870499982
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A really excellent work!

I was amazed at how much I enjoyed reading this really good biography. It was the author's Ph.D. disertation but he worked on it for ten years after he he obtained his doctorate, and I don't know how good his dissertation was but this work is superlative. I did not find a dull page. The account of the Trent Affair, in which Mason was a prime figure, is very well-told. The account of the years in England also is full of information I did not know, tho I have a reasonably full reading background re Civil War times. I cannot recall a more satisfactory biography of this type. It is excellently footnoted, and has an outstanding bibliography. After finishing it one feels he knows as much about Senator Mason--grandson of George Mason of constitutional history fame--as anyone can be expected to know. Senator Mason had some outrageous views--e.g., slavery was a good thing for both whites and blacks!--but these are outlined without editorial outrage, tho it is clear that Young holods no brief for them. I do not believe an unreconstructed Confederate could take issue with anything in the book, even tho I did not have the idea, as one sometimes does in reading books about Southern Confederates, that the author sympathizes or, worse yet, agrees with them. For instance Charles Wiltse's three volume biography of John C. Calhoun, which I read in 1976, I remember I found trying to read because of his obvious bias in favor of his subject. The same is true of Jefferson Davis: American Patriot 1808-1861, by Hudson Strode (read 8 Nov 1970); Jefferson Davis: Confederate President, by Hudson Strode (read 15 Nov 1970); and Jefferson Davis: Tragic Hero The Last Twenty-Five Years, by Hudson Strode (read 22 Nov 1970), which volumes reek with adulation for their subject. I admit I was glad that Senator Mason did not live to see that the South actually won the Civil War in the long run, since the Negro was treated abominably for so many years after the end of Reconstruction. This biography is a real treasure, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

A fascinating look into the Confederacy and the life of a Southern politician

I had the privilage of being Dr. Young's student where he teaches college (Carroll Community, Westminster, MD) and his facts on Mason are endless. He speaks of Mason as if he knew him personally and that's the mark of a good historian who's done his research. Sometimes historical biographies can be a bit dull, but this was interesting and I enjoyed reading about Senator Mason. I would recommend this as a book to be read by U.S. History students or Civil War buffs.

interesting perspective on Confederacy

I had the opportunity not only to read Dr. Young's book, but to interview about it as well. He is a knowledgeable historian and very fact-conscious, as well as understanding the larger issues at hand. I recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in the American Civil War because it will provide you with a unique story about one player in this immense drama.