Not really. If anything you are guilty of confusion over its stated theme. The sentence you purport to contain its theme appears halfway down the page in the middle of the text - not exactly a common place for stating the purpose of an article. In reality, the purpose is explicitly stated in the opening paragraph: "The focus of this book is thus on the economic rationality of seemingly senseless events of the Civil War – a critical period in American history."
That you missed this seems to indicate a critical lapse in reading comprehension on your part. Surely you remember that lesson they normally teach in, oh, sometime around 2nd grade where they give you a paragraph and ask you to underline the topic sentence. What's even more pitiful on your part is that, in the case of this particular article, the topic was restated a second time in case somebody with obviously slower comprehension abilities such as yourself missed it the first time. From paragraph 2:
"The premise of the book is that historians have a comparative advantage in describing such events, but economists have the tools to help explain these events."
Did you see it that time, mac? The book is not specifically about the government of the confederacy as you claim. It is about the events of the war in general AS VIEWED THROUGH THE TOOLS OF ECONOMICS.
"Big Confederate government brought the Confederacy to its knees."
I can't really help it if you are unable to grasp the concept of theme in literature. Or perhaps your persistant historical myopia makes this particular theme undigestable (lol). However, you may wish to communicate directly with the two authors about their placement of the unifying concept of their work in this article.
Sounds like a pretty good read too.