I found this small book disappointing at best.Overly large portions of this book are devoted to the personal recollections of the author which do so little to enhance or provide any meaningful perspective on the rest of the book that one suspects they were added only to fill out sufficient length to permit the book to be sold as a book rather than an article. If you are looking to understand anything about why the south took the course it did in the time period leading up to the civil war or subsequently, I expect almost any other book will provide more bang for the buck.