About the Author

William J. Cooper, Jr., is the author of Jefferson Davis, American; The Conservative Regime: South Carolina, 1877--1890; The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828--1856; and Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860 and coauthor of The American South: A History. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and the Jefferson Davis Award, among other honors. A Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University, he lives in Baton Rouge.