William C. Davis Quotes

5 Sourced Quotes

Legalistic Southerners tried to view the Constitution as a contract. Unfortunately, that viewpoint breaks down when viewed as a lawyer views a contract. There are very few ways to legally break a contract unilaterally.

William C. Davis

Myths simply throw roadblocks in the path to enlightenment, and it is from truth that we have the most to learn. One man's truth, however, can be another's myth, and only through dispassionate and disinterested dissection of such stories can we tell the difference. The Confederate experience is dotted with episodes that are not particularly admirable.

William C. Davis

All peoples part with their myths reluctantly, and historians are at some risk when they try to dismantle those of the Confederacy.

William C. Davis

To the old Union they had said that the Federal power had no authority to interfere with slavery issues in a state. To their new nation they would declare that the state had no power to interfere with a federal protection of slavery. Of all the many testimonials to the fact that slavery, and not states rights, really lay at the heart of their movement, this was the most eloquent of all.

William C. Davis

In fact, the state rights defense of secession in 1860–1861 did not really appear in force until after 1865 as builders of the Lost Cause myth sought to distance themselves from slavery.

William C. Davis

William C. Davis

William C. Davis

Creative Commons

Born: 1946 (age 73)

Bio: William Charles Davis is an American historian who is the professor of history at Virginia Tech and Director of Programs at that school's Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.

Known for:

Three Roads to the Alamo (1998)
Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (1991)
The Pirates Laffite (2005)

William C. Davis on Wikipedia

Suggest an edit or a new quote

American Historian Quotes

Historian Quotes

20th-century Historian Quotes