While the work generated generally favorable reviews for its literary merits, Foote's efforts received pointed and strong criticisms from professional historians and scholars of slavery. Scholars criticized Foote for not including footnotes and for neglecting subjects such as economics and politics of the Civil War era, as well as the role of slavery and the participation of African Americans more generally. Foote was criticized for his lack of interest in more current historical research, and for a less firm grasp of politics than military affairs. Foote relied extensively on the work of Hudson Strode, whose sympathy for Lost Cause claims resulted in a portrait of Jefferson Davis as a tragic hero without many of the flaws attributed to him by other historians."