Thomas R.R. Cobb

Thomas R. R. Cobb (1823-1862), a Georgia jurist who, perhaps more than any other one person, influenced the form that the "second revolution" took in Georgia (1860-1861), has been described as a prototype of a Southern intellectual. A product of the "Old South," Cobb's influence upon national events (up to and during the Civil War, especially in Georgia) was considerable. Cobb was a "representative Southerner" whose ideas "expressed the trends then current in Southern thought." This investigation of the life and influence of Thomas R. R. Cobb provides significant insight into the attitudes of his time. Cobb's multifaceted involvements -- in legal, educational, and moral reform; revivalism; the "positive good defense" of slavery; secession; and the Civil War -- make him a doubly interesting important figure worthy of serious investigation. The present study is just such a serious, well-researched, and well-written investigation of Cobb, and amply provides further insight into the life and times of that "Late Great Unpleasantness" (secession and Civil War) that is such an important part of the history of the United States.