New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1910 (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies)
Doyle (history, Vanderbilt Univ.) accomplishes the difficult task of comparative history quite successfully here. Using four cities as his case studies, he demonstrates that if the plantation was the world the slaveholder made, then urban centers were the worlds made by New South merchants, manufacturers, and financiers. The "new men" of whom Doyle writes certainly dominated the urbanization process of the postbellum South. However, to his credit, Doyle neither ignores nor minimizes the role of women. Of the four cities, Atlanta and Nashville prospered, while Charleston and Mobile stagnated. Still, the boosters of the New South and the changes they wrought, or failed to make, in economic, social, and racial areas left a legacy that shaped the world of the southerner today. A sound study recommended for most libraries with strong collections in Southern studies.- Jason H. Silverman, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.