A History of Georgia


Book Description

First published in 1977, A History of Georgia has become the standard history of the state. Documenting events from the earliest discoveries by the Spanish to the rapid changes the state has undergone with the civil rights era, the book gives broad coverage to the state's social, political, economic, and cultural history. This work details Georgia's development from past to present, including the early Cherokee land disputes, the state's secession from the Union, cotton's reign, Reconstruction, the Bourbon era, the effects of the New Deal, Martin Luther King, Jr., the fall of the county-unit system, and Jimmy Carter's election to the presidency. Also noted are the often-overlooked contributions of Indians, blacks, and women. Each imparting his own special knowledge and understanding of a particular period in the state's history, the authors bring into focus the personalities and events that made Georgia what it is today. For this new edition, available in paperback for the first time, A History of Georgia has been revised to bring the work up through the events of the 1980s. The bibliographies for each section and the appendixes have also been updated to include relevant scholarship from the last decade.




Historians in Service of a Better South


Book Description

Amid the soaring oratory of Martin Luther King and the fiery rhetoric of George Wallace, scholars who worked with the Southern Regional Council during the civil rights movement spoke quietly, but with the authority of informed reason. Prominent among them was Professor Paul Gaston of the University of Virginia, who co-authored an influential analysis of school segregation, served as president of the SRC board, and authored The New South Creed. Gaston’s legacy of service includes his role as a mentor of historians. He oversaw more than two dozen dissertations at UVA from 1957 to the year 2000. These illuminated important aspects of the South and the civil rights movement while contributing to the growth of community and organizational studies within the field of social history. The articles in this Festschrift feature essays that he inspired among his students and colleagues.




Fair to Middlin'


Book Description

Explores the livelihood of the regional antebellum economy surrounding the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee River valley and the resulting global impact of this industry This study focuses on the port of Apalachicola, Florida and the business men who lived the trade, flourishing amongst the poor conditions of transportation, communication, money, and banking. Cotton businessmen located along the waterway and on the coast neatly divided the labour necessary to market the region's major source of income. Early regional economics revolved around and grew from the rivers that served as the primary form of transportation, and each patchwork of economy in the antebellum South relied on a different river system and its major transportation artery. Few people truly understand and realize how important cotton was to the world's economy, and no other American export came close to the importance of cotton. This power and success allowed the South to function self-sufficiently, eliminating the need to rely on other regions for goods. It was not until the introduction of the railroad system that these individual river economies blurred and faded into one another, gradually uniting to one integrated national economy.




Creating the South Carolina State House


Book Description

This work offers a look at the construction and renovation of South Carolina's most important government structure, the State House. Prompted to research the building by its restoration between 1995 and 1998, the author witnessed every stage of excavation, demolition and rebuilding.




The New Republic


Book Description

Reginald Horsman's powerful and comprehensive survey of the early years of the American Republic covers the dramatic years from the setting up of the US Constitution in 1789, the first US presidency under George Washington, and also the presidencies of Adams, Jeffersen and Madison. A major strength of the book is that the coverage of the traditional topics about the shaping of the new government and crisis in foreign policy is combined with chapters on race, slavery, the economy and westward expansion, revealing both the strengths and weaknesses of the government and society that came into being after the Revolution. Key features include: Combines extensive research with the best recent scholarship on the period A balanced account of the contributions of the leading personalities Impressive coverage is given to questions of race and territorial expansion Chapter One provides a concise and lucid account of the state of American politics and society in 1789 Extensive chapter bibliographies The work will be welcomed by students studying the early republic as well as general readers interested in a stimulating and informative account of the early years of the American nation.




Forty Years of Diversity


Book Description

This collection of essays grew out of a symposium commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of Georgia. The contributors are authorities in their respective fields and their efforts represent not only the fruits of long careers but also the observations and insights of some of the most promising young scholars. Forty Years of Diversity sheds new light on the social, political, religious, and ethnic diversity of colonial Georgia.




The Tomato in America


Book Description

"Serious scholarly study traces biological origins of the tomato and evolution of human attitude toward its use from preconquest western South America, the Central America isthmus, and Mexico to 16thcentury Europe. Then follows path of the tomato back across the Atlantic to 19thcentury US. Also identifies another possible route for the tomato from the Caribbean to southeastern US. Drawn from scientific, medical, and historical works as well as traditional cookbooks"Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58




The Roots of Southern Populism


Book Description

"The Civil War and Emancipation changed the world of yeoman farmers as much as that of planters and slaves. Examining upcountry Georgia as a microcosm of nonplantation districts in the South, Steven Hahn in The Roots of Southern Populism shows how farmers experienced the unraveling of antebellum household economies, the development of market relations, the rise of a new class of merchant-landlords, and the growing tensions between countryside and town - and how their responses and struggles fueled the Populist movement of the 1890s. The Roots of Southern Populism continues to be a model for the study of Populism; popular politics, and the capitalist transformation of rural society. In a new afterword, Hahn reflects on the book's genesis, on its critics, and on the directions of subsequent scholarship in the fields."--BOOK JACKET.




Cultivating Success in the South


Book Description

This book explores changes in rural households of the Georgia Piedmont through the material culture of farmers as they transitioned from self-sufficiency to market dependence. The period between 1880 and 1910 was a time of dynamic change when Southern farmers struggled to reinvent their lives and livelihoods. Relying on primary documents, including probate inventories, tax lists, state and federal census data, and estate sale results, this study seeks to understand the variables that prompted farm households to assume greater risk in hopes of success as well as those factors that stood in the way of progress. While there are few projects of this type for the late nineteenth century, and fewer still for the New South, the findings challenge the notion of farmers as overly conservative consumers and call into question traditional views of conspicuous consumption as a key indicator of wealth and status.