-
Becoming Bourgeois: Merchant Culture in the South, 1820-1865
This book focuses on what historians have come to call the “middling sort”, the economic group falling between yeoman farmers and the planter class that dominated the antebellum South. At a time when Southerners rarely traveled far from their homes, these merchants annually ventured forth on buying junkets to northern cities. The southern merchant community promoted the kind of aggressive business practices that proponents of the “New South” would later claim as their own. This book reveals the peculiar strains of modern liberal-capitalist and conservative thought that permeated the culture of southern merchants. By exploring the values men and women ...Read More
-
Through Mobility We Conquer: The Mechanization of U.S. Cavalry
The U.S. Cavalry, which began in the nineteenth century as little more than a mounted reconnaissance and harrying force, underwent intense growing pains with the rapid technological developments of the twentieth century. From its tentative beginnings during World War I, the eventual conversion of the traditional horse cavalry to a mechanized branch is arguably one of the greatest military transformations in history. This book recounts the evolution and development of the U.S. Army's modern mechanized cavalry and the doctrine necessary to use it effectively. It also explores the debates over how best to use cavalry and how these discussions evolved ...Read More
-
Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History
The political and cultural upheaval of the ’60s has become a subject blighted by misconceptions and stereotypes. To many, it is synonymous with widespread drug abuse, failed social experiments, and general irresponsibility. Despite sustained public interest, few remember that many of the freedoms and rights Americans enjoy today are the direct result of those who defied the established order during this tumultuous period. It was an era that challenged both mainstream and elite American notions of how politics and society should function. In Generation on Fire, Jeff Kisseloff’s continuing work in oral history, witnesses speak about their motives and actions ...Read More
-
Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950
This volume is the first comprehensive and in-depth history of Kentucky during the first half of the twentieth century. State Historian James C. Klotter examines in depth not only the people and their lives but also the state’s economy, educational system, cultural activities, politics, and folkways. He demonstrates how, enduring images and stereotypes developed that have shaped the state’s progress throughout the century. In his view, the first half of the century were years of unrealized promises and failed dreams. Yet amid poverty there was plenty; along with educational weaknesses were cultural strengths; beside partisanship there was leadership.
“This is ...Read More
-
The Breckinridges of Kentucky
Across more than six generations—beginning before the Revolutionary War—the Breckinridge family has produced a series of notable leaders. These often controversial men and women included a presidential candidate, a U.S. vice president, cabinet members, generals, women’s rights advocates, congressmen, editors, reformers, authors, and church leaders. Along with success, the Breckinridges, like other Americans, faced hardship and war, contended with race, lived through difficult family situations—including a sex scandal—and encountered personal and political failure. An articulate, opinionated, and frank family, the Breckinridges have left a detailed record that allows us a vivid recreation of the range of American history and society.
...Read More -
Faces of Kentucky
Written by Kentuckians for Kentuckians, Faces of Kentucky is a comprehensive history of Kentucky designed for young students. The state’s story comes alive as never before through the images and life stories of the diverse people of the Commonwealth. The product of a collaboration of the State Historian of Kentucky and an award-winning teacher (both native Kentuckians), Faces of Kentucky approaches learning as a voyage of discovery. Numerous illustrations, thought-provoking questions, and historical mysteries to be solved seek to challenge young readers and to help them think about their state, themselves, and their future.
Features: Timelines from early history to ...Read More
-
Henry Watterson and the New South: The Politics of Empire, Free Trade, and Globalization
Henry Watterson (1840–1921), editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal from the 1860s through World War I, was one of the most important and widely read newspaper editors in American history. An influential New South supporter of sectional reconciliation and economic development, Watterson was also the nation's premier advocate of free trade and globalization. Watterson's vision of a prosperous and independent South within an expanding American empire was unique among prominent Southerners and Democrats. He helped articulate the bipartisan embrace of globalization that accompanied America's rise to unmatched prosperity and world power. This book restores Watterson to his place at the heart ...Read More
-
Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia
During the four years of the Civil War, the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory, alternately occupied by both the Confederacy and the Union. Though this territory was sparsely populated, the geography of the region made it a desirable stronghold for future tactical maneuvers. As the war progressed, the Cumberland Gap quickly became the target of invasion and occupation efforts of both armies, creating a chaos that would strain not only the soldiers but all those who called the area their home. This book examines the features of the region's geography and the influence of ...Read More
-
We’ll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema during World War II
During the highly charged years of World War II, movies perhaps best communicated to Americans who they were and why they were fighting. These films were more than just an explanation of historical events: they asked audiences to consider the Nazi threat, they put a face on both the enemies and allies, and they explored changing wartime gender roles. This book shows how film after film repeated the narratives, character types, and rhetoric that made the war and each American's role in it comprehensible. To write this book the authors watched more than six-hundred films made between 1937 and 1946—including ...Read More
-
Southern Farmers and Their Stories: Memory and Meaning in Oral History
The industrial expansion of the twentieth century brought with it a profound shift away from traditional agricultural modes and practices in the American South. The forces of economic modernity—specialization, mechanization, and improved efficiency—swept through southern farm communities, leaving significant upheaval in their wake. In an attempt to comprehend the complexities of the present and prepare for the uncertainties of the future, many southern farmers searched for order and meaning in their memories of the past. This book explores the ways in which a diverse array of farmers remember and recount the past. The book tells the story of the modernization ...Read More
Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.
