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William H. Crawford: 1772–1834
Senator from Georgia, minister to France, cabinet officer, and unsuccessful presidential candidate, William Harris Crawford was one of the major figures of the early republic. Because most of his papers were destroyed by fire during the Civil War period, however, estimates of Crawford’s abilities and accomplishments have usually been based on the papers of his political adversaries—notably John Quincy Adams—and few men of his stature have received so little attention from historians.
This first full biographical study, drawing on hundreds of documentary collections, many never used in biographies and monographs of the period, throws new light on Crawford’s career and ...Read More
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Two Paths to The New South: The Virginia Debt Controversy, 1870–1883
In the grim decades after the Civil War, Southerners dreamed of industrial growth and agricultural diversification. In this study, Mr. Moore traces the development and changes that took place in the Old Dominion during these troubled postbellum years.
The state’s massive debt burden touched off an upheaval, splintering the electorate into competing Funder and Readjuster factions. The Funders, composed largely of the conservative farmers of eastern Virginia and the commercial classes of the towns, were committed to pay off Virginia’s prewar debt in full. The Readjusters, drawing their support from the fringe elements of society, sought a more realistic, downward ...Read More
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Prophet Without Honor: Glen H. Taylor and the Fight for American Liberalism
Glen Taylor’s colorful political career, which ran its course from 1944 to 1956, saw him rise from a barnstorming musician to candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States on the 1948 Progressive party ticket. In this illuminating study, Mr. Peterson delineates the life and public career of this man who, though relatively unknown, articulated and fought for many of the policies that later became widely accepted by the American people-policies such as equal civil rights on the domestic front and the application of cooperation rather than containment on the foreign front. Taylor, a dedicated liberal and humanitarian, was devoted ...Read More
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John Wesley Hunt: Pioneer Merchant, Manufacturer and Financier
When John Wesley Hunt came to Kentucky in 1794, his plan was to open a general store in Lexington. A canny judge of business opportunity, he soon expanded his activities and became one of the responsible figures of Kentucky banking and finance. In another kind of venture, he imported fine stallions from the East, significantly improving the bloodlines of thoroughbreds and trotters in the Bluegrass.
John Wesley Hunt tells the story of Hunt’s business exploits against the background of life in frontier Lexington. James A. Ramage reveals how his innovative solutions to the financial problems of the frontier gave ...Read More
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The Old Dominion and the New Nation: 1788–1801
This comprehensive study—an honorable mention in the 1971 Frederick Jackson Turner Award competition— traces the emergence and development of the Republican and Federalist party organizations in Virginia and shows how the old oligarchic system based on wealth, influence, and social prestige remained strong in that state after the formation of the new nation. The book covers details of the Virginia Antifederalists’ continuing hostility to the federal Constitution, James Madison’s switch from the Federalist party to the emerging Republican party, Madison’s and Jefferson’s attempts to coordinate Republican opposition to Federalist foreign policy, and the Republicans’ successful campaign in 1800 to replace ...Read More
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The County Courts in Antebellum Kentucky
Although an important part of local government, particularly in the South, in their early years the county courts have not been thoroughly investigated. This book offers the first comprehensive examination of the county courts during the antebellum era in one southern state Kentucky, placing them in the context of its constitutional and political structure. More administrative than judicial in function, the courts were the means of providing most services of government for the people. This range of activity is fully discussed here, from road building to tax collecting to caring for the poor.
Robert M. Ireland also explores the political ...Read More
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Land Between the Lakes
Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area lies in western Kentucky and Tennessee, between two huge lakes formed by dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.Some 170,000 acres bounded by 300 miles of shoreline, Land Between the Lakes is blessed with a rich variety of plant and animal life. Conceived and administrated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, it is a unique recreational experiment which has drawn admiring visitors from around the world.
Frank E. Smith, director of TVA, tells the story of the transformation of submarginal land into a large-scale, multiple-use recreation facility that provides recreation and entertainment for thousands of ...Read More
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Historians on the Homefront: American Propagandists for the Great War
When Woodrow Wilson called on the American people to mobilize for war in April 1917, it was hardly surprising that historians should respond to their one-time colleague. Mobilization produced three organizations staffed by many of America’s leading historians. All three organizations, the author shows, viewed as their task the mobilizing of America’s intellectual resources in support of Wilson’s war policies.
The postwar decade saw an inevitable cooling of wartime passions and a reevaluation of the causes of the war. George T. Blakey examines the postwar reaction to the activities of the CPI, NBHS, and NSL, which included congressional investigations and ...Read More
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The Woolen Industry of the Midwest
Through the study of a regional industry, the book illustrates the impact of an expanding national market on a previously isolated market, offering new insights into a pioneer industry in the West and into the business methods and procedures of the time. The book discusses the growth of a myriad of small processing and manufacturing plants which drew raw materials from, and geared production and sales to that local economy, enjoying as they did, protection from eastern competitors who were saddled with high freight rates. The book demonstrates that once urbanization occurred in the region, bringing it into the national ...Read More
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Laboratory for Liberty: The South Carolina Legislative Committee System 1719–1776
This comprehensive study highlights the importance of legislative and extralegal committees in the political and institutional development of early American history, showing how the colonial experience modified a basic British institution, using it in the cause of legislative supremacy and, eventually, independence. The book illuminates the role played by committees in the growth of colonial self-government, tracing the committee system to its origins in the parliamentary committees of medieval England, then following the permutations of the committee system through the decades in which self-government emerged in South Carolina. Solid, penetrating, the book offers new depths of insight into an important ...Read More
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