Judah P. Benjamin; Confederate Statesman $3.50

DOUBLE lives are decried, but Judah P. Benjamin lived his in sequence. A lawyer of consummate ability, born in the West Indies under the British flag, he became Attorney General, head of the War Department, and Secretary of State in the Confederacy — the smartest man, said Lincoln, in the Southern Cabinet. After Appomattox, the interlude of his escape to England was packed with thrills such as make Monte Cristo’s like a walk home from Sunday church. Once safe in London, Benjamin set himself up as a barrister, became a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, and in a full-bottomed wig took kindly to earning thirty thousand pounds a year.

What a career for a dumpy little Jew with a sweet disposition, an untender conscience, and a genius for getting on! Had his idea of selling cotton on a vast scale in London and transforming it into ships and arms been adopted, history might have run in another channel. But as it was, Jefferson Davis needed comfort and devotion, and Benjamin was there to provide them.

An alluring subject, this sound book is fair, objective, and accurate. It has all the academic virtues.