Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906

by Edward L. Ayers

Edward L. Ayers monumental history, Promise of the New South , was praised by the eminent historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown as "A work of frequently stunning beauty," who added "The elegance and sensitivity that he achieves are typical of few historical works." Winner of the James A. Rawley Prize for Best Book on American Race Relations from the Organization of American Historians, and the Frank Lawrence Owsley and Harriett Chappell Owsley Award from the Southern Historical Association, and finalist for the 1992 National Book Award, the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for History, and the 1993 Southern Book Award, Promise of the New South established Ayers as one of the foremost scholars of the American South. Now, in this newly revised edition, Ayers has distilled this remarkable work to offer an even more readable account of the New South.
Ranging from the Georgia coast to the Tennessee mountains, from the power brokers to tenant farmers, Ayers depicts a land of startling contrasts--a time of progress and repression, of new industries and old ways. Ayers takes us from remote Southern towns, revolutionized by the spread of the railroads, to the statehouses where Democratic "Redeemers" swept away the legacy of Reconstruction; from the small farmers, trapped into growing nothing but cotton, to the new industries of Birmingham; from abuse and intimacy in the family to tumultuous public meetings of the prohibitionists. He explores every aspect of society, politics, and the economy, detailing the importance of each in the emerging New South. Here is the local Baptist congregation, the country store, the tobacco-stained second-class railroad car, the rise of the teeming, nineteenth-century South comes to life in these pages. And central to the entire story is the role of race relations, from alliances and
friendships between blacks and whites to the spread of Jim Crow laws and disenfranchisement. Ayers weaves all these details into the contradictory story of the New South, showing how the region developed the patterns it was to follow for the next fifty years.
A vivid portrait of a society undergoing the sudden confrontation of the promises, costs, and consequences of modern life, this is an unforgettable account of the New South--a land with one foot in the future and the other in the past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race, 19th Century

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 1994

About the author

Edward Ayers is President Emeritus of the University of Richmond, where he now serves as Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities. Previously Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, where he began teaching in 1980, Ayers was named the National Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2003.

A historian of the American South, Ayers has written and edited 10 books. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2013.

A pioneer in digital history, Ayers created "The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War," a website that has attracted millions of users and won major prizes in the teaching of history. He serves as co-editor of the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States at the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab and is a co-host of BackStory with the American History Guys, a nationally syndicated radio show and podcast.

Ayers has received a presidential appointment to the National Council on the Humanities, served as a Fulbright professor in the Netherlands, and been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an abridged book, and it does read like one. There are sections that you are wondering why they are so short (i.e. on lynching among other areas). Still, not a bad book and does give a good general description of the South during the time period. Very good for context.

[Christopher Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you are looking for a regional history of the southeastern United States. Ayers goes into specific details covering vast areas of southern history between 1877 and 1906, it really helped me out a lot for a history paper I was working on on southern culture this semester.

[Aaron Shipman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am torn in the number of stars that I want to give this book. Parts of the book were just okay and I liked other parts. This book is an abridgment and it reads like one. The paragraphs do not, in my opinion, flow well from one idea to the next. I like the lay out of the books chapters and how the author used each chapter to advance the story of the South and its people during this time but I felt short changed on the information. Just when I felt that the author was beginning to drive home a point or bolster an argument over child labor or the Populist movement, the section or chapter ended. The book also ends in much the same way. The author basically says, "There was a race riot in Atlanta. It was pretty bad and about 25 blacks were killed. So the South had its issues and history kept on going but I'm tired of writing so here is the end." I do wish that the author would have listed all of the sources that were used, like he says he does in the longer book. All in all for someone just interest in a brief and somewhat disjointed introduction to Southern history, this book would be fine. For someone truly interested in Southern history,it is my opinion that this abridged book will be a disappointment.