Bill Cooper worked at Louisiana State University for nearly 50 years as a professor of southern history and as an administrator. A native of rural South Carolina, he studied with the imposing David Donald at Princeton and Johns Hopkins University before moving to Baton Rouge in 1968. Bill has published widely on southern politics, which has included the definitive and prize-winning biography Jefferson Davis, American. His latest book is Approaching Civil War and Southern History (LSU Press), a collection of essays spanning his entire accomplished career.