Life and career
Career
Following his graduate studies, Davis began his professional career in publishing as an editorial assistant at Historical Times, Inc. in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1969 to 1972. [4] He went on to serve as editor of American History Illustrated and Civil War TimesIllustrated magazines from 1972 to 1976. [5] He later became president of the National Historical Society (1976–1982), executive editor of Historical Times, Inc. (1982–1984), and corporate editorial director of the same company (1984–1986). [6]
From 1986 to 1990, Davis was president of Museum Editions, Ltd., a book and product packaging division of Cowles Magazines, and continued as a book packaging and sales consultant from 1990 to 1992, including representing Salamander Books of London in the U.S. market. [7]
In 1992, he began a long association as a consulting editor with Stackpole Books, a leading publisher of military history. [3] That same year, he also served as an adjunct professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Capitol Campus. [8]
In 2000, Davis became a professor at Virginia Tech, where he served as director of programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. [1] He retired from this position in 2013. [9]
Throughout his academic and professional career, Davis has lectured across the United States, including the University of Arkansas, Tulane University, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee University. [5] He has presented papers before prominent scholarly associations such as the American Historical Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the Smithsonian Institution. [10]
He was chief consultant and on-screen historian for the Arts and Entertainment/History Chanel series “Civil War Journal,” and has served as historical advisor for numerous television and film productions here and in the UK. [11] He has also served as a voluntary cnsultant to the Virginia State Police linvestigating “cold case” homicides. [12]
Davis served as a consultant for the creation of a United States postage stamp of Jefferson Davis and has had input into the formation of the Museum of the Civil War in Petersburg, Virginia. [12]
Davis was awarded the Sonoma State University Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993. [13] In 2015, he received The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement. [14]
Scholarly works
In 1996, Davis authored the book The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy, a critical examination of mythical claims made by neo-Confederates and Lost Cause members regarding the Confederacy and the American Civil War. Davis states that "it is impossible to point to any other local issue but slavery and say that Southerners would have seceded and fought over it." [15] However, Davis contrasted the motivations of the Confederate leadership with that of the motivations for individual men for fighting in the Confederate army, writing that "The widespread northern myth that the Confederates went to the battlefield to perpetuate slavery is just that, a myth. Their letters and diaries, in the tens of thousands, reveal again and again that they fought and died because their Southern homeland was invaded and their natural instinct was to protect home and hearth." [16]
Over the course of his career, William C. Davis has authored or edited more than fifty books, many of which have become standard works in the field of Civil War studies. Among his most acclaimed publications are Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, widely regarded as the definitive biography of the Confederate president [17] , and A Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy. [18]
In 2015, Davis published Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee – The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged, a comparative biography examining the military careers, personal lives, ethical perspectives, and political views of both generals. [19] The work received the Jefferson Davis Award from the American Civil War Museum, the John Y. Simon Award from the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and the Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement from the Lincoln Forum. [1]
Davis has served as an editor, conference speaker, and lecturer at academic institutions, with presentations before organizations including the American Historical Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the Smithsonian Institution. [7] His scholarship extends beyond the Civil War to subjects such as 19th-century political culture, historical memory, and biography. [1] He has also written on piracy in The Pirates Laffite [20] and on the early Republic in Lone Star Rising. [21]
In his later research, Davis turned to lesser-known figures, including Loreta Janeta Velazquez, an alleged Confederate soldier and spy whose memoir he exposed as largely fictional in a recent biographical study [22] . He is currently editing a collection of Civil War-era letters between Confederate general Gabriel Wharton and his wife, Nannie Wharton. [23]
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