DOC Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel in History

Description

When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy; his wife; Varina Howell Davis; reluctantly became the First Lady. For this highly intelligent; acutely observant woman; loyalty did not come easily: she spent long years struggling to reconcile her societal duties to her personal beliefs. Raised in Mississippi but educated in Philadelphia; and a long-time resident of Washington; D.C.; Mrs. Davis never felt at ease in Richmond. During the war she nursed Union prisoners and secretly corresponded with friends in the North. Though she publicly supported the South; her term as First Lady was plagued by rumors of her disaffection. After the war; Varina Davis endured financial woes and the loss of several children; but following her husband's death in 1889; she moved to New York and began a career in journalism. Here she advocated reconciliation between the North and South and became friends with Julia Grant; the widow of Ulysses S. Grant. She shocked many by declaring in a newspaper that it was God's will that the North won the war. A century after Varina Davis's death in 1906; Joan E. Cashin has written a masterly work; the first definitive biography of this truly modern; but deeply conflicted; woman. Pro-slavery but also pro-Union; Varina Davis was inhibited by her role as Confederate First Lady and unable to reveal her true convictions. In this pathbreaking book; Cashin offers a splendid portrait of a fascinating woman who struggled with the constraints of her time and place.