A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Last Days of the Confederacy is a 1986 non-fiction book by Michael B. Ballard, published by the University Press of Mississippi.
[1] Patrick G. Gerster of Lakewood Community College stated that the book portrays Davis in a "human" in an "elusive middle ground" manner that highlights his strengths, weaknesses, and the "complex character" as opposed to in an "extreme" manner; according to Gerster, the primary sourcing supports Ballard's portrayal.
[3] The book, in the words of Gerster, showed how Jefferson Davis became "a symbol of his suffering Southland", and that the evolution of his reception is "Perhaps the most important dimension of" the work.
[2] Granville D. Davis of Rhodes College wrote that the work analyzes the matter in a "convincing" manner, and that the text has strong "clarity"; Granville Davis also praised the "thoroughness of [the author's] research".
[5] The Virginia Quarterly Review praised how the work "aims higher than an exciting narrative of chase and capture.