The Politics of Education in the New South: Women and Reform in Georgia, 1890–1930

by Rebecca S. Montgomery

Alarmed at the growing poverty, illiteracy, class strife, and vulnerability of women after the upheavals of Reconstruction, female activists in Georgia advocated a fair and just system of education as a way of providing economic opportunity for women and the rural and urban poor. Their focus on educational reform transfigured private and public social relations in the New South, as Rebecca S. Montgomery details in this expansive study. The Politics of Education in the New South provides the most complete picture of women's role in expanding the democratic promise of education in the South and reveals how concern about their own status motivated these women to push for reform on behalf of others. Montgomery argues that women's prolonged campaign for educational improvements reflected their concern for distributing public resources more equitably. Middle-class white women in Georgia recognized the crippling effects of discrimination and state inaction, which they came to understand in terms of both gender and class. They subsequently pushed for admission of women to Georgia's state colleges and universities and for rural school improvement, home extension services, public kindergartens, child labor reforms, and the establishment of female-run boarding schools in the mountains of North Georgia. In the process, a distinct female political culture developed that directly opposed the individualism, corruption, and short-sightedness that plagued formal politics in the New South.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[B. Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my graduate program. Initially I was a little skeptical but it turned out to be a great book. Montgomery does an excellent job in weaving the various historical aspects that shaped education in the south, particularly Georgia. As a Georgia native and University of Georgia graduate it opened my eyes to an entirely new history of [white] women's struggles to attend universities like UGA and Georgia Tech in efforts to better their lives post Reconstruction. I will say that I believe Montgomery could have done a better job in her inclusion of how Blacks tied into the reforms that white club women were pushing. It seems that each chapter, including 3, only touches the surface. As a person with a degree in history I understand that it can be hard to incorporate every historical aspect from a time but it seems as if the reader was only given a taste of how certain reforms played a role in the Black communities of Georgia.