If you want to get inside the heads and hearts of some of the leaders of the secession movement, as it tore the country apart in late 1860 and early 1861, paving the way for the creation of the Confederate States of America and the Civil War, you need to read this short book. Dew presents the Southern leaders in the way possible: in their own words. With little commentary outside of historical contextualization, he lets these men tell us what they thought and why.

Apostles of Disunion, Charles B. Dew