Many Southerners and Northerners wrote about the Civil War after it was over, but none of them held as senior a position as Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president. While other generals wrote memoirs that historians still continue to debate about, Davis wrote the most comprehensive tome about the political aspects of the Civil War, particularly his fullthroated defense of the Confederacy’s right to secede. His memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, is one of the most controversial works to come out of the Civil War.  Volume I explains the political background of the country before the war, as well as his analysis of the Constitution and the right to secede. Volume II picks up where Volume I left off, with the seminal events of 1862 following the secession and the first battles of 1861. Volume II covers everything from 1862 to the end of the war.