Women Shaping the South: Creating and Confronting Change (Volume 1) (Southern Women)

Events in southern history have often been recounted from the top down, relying on political and economic models to explain historical changes. Thus, the key players have usually been men who dominated politics, shaped economic development, and led armies. However, history is also made from the bottom up by those who confront change and shape it through their actions. In this collection of essays, the contributors reexamine major transformative events of southern history from the late eighteenth century through the civil rights era. Shifting the focus to the local level, the authors demonstrate how women participated in creating change, even as they confronted conditions over which they had little power. In addition to exploring southern women’s lives, this collection shows how women shaped southern history. Using new and extensive primary research, each of these authors presents a new perspective on the important roles that women of different races and classes have played in transforming the South at some of its most crucial turning points, including post-Revolution, Civil War, Jim Crow era, World War I, and the civil rights movement. Expanded from papers presented at the Sixth Southern Conference on Women’s History in Athens, Georgia, these essays reflect the depth and breadth of current vibrant research in southern women’s history and contribute exciting and important new scholarship to the field. Just as significant, the volume highlights the trends in southern women’s historical scholarship and points toward new directions for future scholars. Extrait de la couverture : "Events in southern history have often been recounted from the top down, relying on political and economic models to explain historical changes. Thus, the key players have usually been men who dominated politics, shaped economic development, and led armies. However, history is also made from the bottom up by those who confront change and shape it through their actions. In this collection of essays, the contributors reexamine major transformative events of southern history from the late eighteenth century through the civil war rights era. Shifting the focus to the local level, the authors demonstrate how women participated in creating change, even as they confronted conditions over which they had little power. In addition to exploring southern women's lives, this collection shows how women shaped southern history. Using extensive primary research, each of these authors presents a new perspective on the important roles that women of different races and classes have played in transforming the South at some of its most crucial turning points, including post-Revolution, Civil War, Jim Crow era, World War I, and the civil rights movement. Expanded from papers presented at the Sixth Southern Conference on Women's History in Athens, Georgia, these essays reflect the depth and breadth of current vibrant research in southern women's history and contribute exciting and important new scholarship to the field. Just as significant, the volume highlights the trends in southern women's historical scholarship and points toward new directions for future scholars." Editors' introduction Gentry women and the transformation of daily life in Jeffersonian and antebellum Virginia / Phillip Hamilton Jane C. Washington, family, and nation at Mount Vernon, 1830-1855 / Jean B. Lee "I desire to give my black family their freedom" : manumissions, inheritance, and visions of family in antebellum Kentucky / Yvonne M. Pitts Seeking a moral economy of war : Confederate women and southern nationalism in Civil War North Carolina / Jacqueline Glass Campbell Redirecting the tide of white imperialism : the impact of Ida B. Wells's transatlantic antilynching campaign on British conceptions of American race relations / Sarah L. Silkey Unlikely allies : southern women, interracial cooperation, and the making of segregation in Virginia, 1910-1920 / Clayton McClure Brooks Solving the girl problem : race, womanhood, and leisure in Atlanta during World War I / Sarah Mercer Judson To see past the differences to the fundamentals : racial coalition within the League of Women Voters of St. Louis, 1920-1946 / Priscilla A. Dowden-White Louise Thompson Patterson and the southern roots of the Popular Front / Claire Nee Nelson Women's and girls' activism in 1960s southwest Georgia : rethinking history and historiography / Alisa Y. Harrison. Annotation "Events in southern history have often been recounted from the top down, relying on political and economic models to explain historical changes. Thus, the key players have usually been men who dominated politics, shaped economic development, and led armies. However, history is also made from the bottom up by those who confront change and shape it through their actions. In this collection of essays, the contributors reexamine major transformative events of southern history from the late eighteenth century through the civil rights era." "Shifting the focus to the local level, the authors demonstrate how women participated in creating change, even as they confronted conditions over which they had little power. In addition to exploring southern women's lives, this collection shows how women shaped southern history. Using extensive primary research, each of these authors presents a new perspective on the important roles that women of different races and classes have played in transforming the South at some of its most crucial turning points, including post-Revolution, Civil War, Jim Crow era, World War I, and the civil rights movement."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved 'Expanded from papers presented at the Sixth Southern Conference on Women's History, this collection demonstrates how women of different races and classes transformed the South during its most crucial turning points, including post-Revolution, Civil War, Jim Crow era, World War I, and the civil rights movement'--Provided by publisher.