“An extremely good writer, [Ayers] is well worth reading . . . on the South and Southern history.”—Stephen Sears, Boston Globe The Southern past has proven to be fertile ground for great works of history. Peculiarities of tragic proportions—a system of slavery flourishing in a land of freedom, secession and Civil War tearing at a federal Union, deep poverty persisting in a nation of fast-paced development—have fed the imaginations of some of our most accomplished historians. Foremost in their ranks today is Edward L. Ayers, author of the award-winning and ongoing study of the Civil War in the heart of America, the Valley of the Shadow Project. In wide-ranging essays on the Civil War, the New South, and the twentieth-century South, Ayers turns over the rich soil of Southern life to explore the sources of the nation's and his own history. The title essay, original here, distills his vast research and offers a fresh perspective on the nation's central historical event.
At a public picnic in the South in the 1890s, a young man paid five cents for his first chance to hear the revolutionary Edison talking machine. He eagerly listened as the soundman placed the needle down, only to find that through the tubes he held to his ears came the chilling sounds of a lynching. In this story, with its blend of new technology and old hatreds, genteel picnics and mob violence, Edward Ayers captures the history of the South in the years between Reconstruction and the turn of the century. Ranging from the Georgia coast to the Tennessee mountains, from the power brokers to tenant farmers, Ayers depicts a land of startling contrasts. 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. Central to the entire story is the role of race relations, from alliances and friendships between blacks and whites to the spread of Jim Crows laws and disfranchisement. The teeming nineteenth-century South comes to life in these pages. When this book first appeared in 1992, it won a broad array of prizes and was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. The citation for the National Book Award declared Promise of the New South a vivid and masterfully detailed picture of the evolution of a new society. The Atlantic called it "one of the broadest and most original interpretations of southern history of the past twenty years.
“An inspiring book.… American Visions beautifully shows how remarkably resilient dreams of a better republic remained even in the darkest of times.” —Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal A revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today. With so many of our histories falling into dour critique or blatant celebration, here is a welcome departure: a book that offers hope as well as honesty about the American past. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the margins moved the center; eccentric visions altered the accepted wisdom, and acts of empathy questioned self-interest. Edward L. Ayers’s rich history examines the visions that moved Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, the Native American activist William Apess, and others to challenge entrenched practices and beliefs. So, Lydia Maria Child condemned the racism of her fellow northerners at great personal cost. Melville and Thoreau, Joseph Smith and Samuel Morse all charted new paths for America in the realms of art, nature, belief, and technology. It was Henry David Thoreau who, speaking of John Brown, challenged a hostile crowd "Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?" Through decades of award-winning scholarship on the Civil War, Edward L. Ayers has himself ventured beyond the interpretative status quo to recover the range of possibilities embedded in the past as it was lived. Here he turns that distinctive historical sensibility to a period when bold visionaries and critics built vigorous traditions of dissent and innovation into the foundation of the nation. Those traditions remain alive for us today.
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 Populism: 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.
Ayers gives readers the Civil War on an intimate scale. His masterful narrative conveys the coming of war and its bloody encounters through the eyes of those who sacrificed, fought, and died.
With a unique attention to time as the defining nature of history, AMERICAN PASSAGES offers students a view of American history as a complete, compelling narrative. AMERICAN PASSAGES emphasizes the intertwined nature of three key characteristics of time--sequence, simultaneity, and contingency. With clarity and purpose, the authors convey how events grow from other events, people's actions, and broad structural changes (sequence), how apparently disconnected events occurred in close chronological proximity to one another and were situated in larger, shared contexts (simultaneity), and how history suddenly pivoted because of events, personalities, and unexpected outcomes (contingency).
Winner of the Bancroft Prize: Through a gripping narrative based on massive new research, a leading historian reshapes our understanding of the Civil War. Our standard Civil War histories tell a reassuring story of the triumph, in an inevitable conflict, of the dynamic, free-labor North over the traditional, slave-based South, vindicating the freedom principles built into the nation's foundations. But at the time, on the borderlands of Pennsylvania and Virginia, no one expected war, and no one knew how it would turn out. The one certainty was that any war between the states would be fought in their fields and streets. Edward L. Ayers gives us a different Civil War, built on an intimate scale. He charts the descent into war in the Great Valley spanning Pennsylvania and Virginia. Connected by strong ties of every kind, including the tendrils of slavery, the people of this borderland sought alternatives to secession and war. When none remained, they took up war with startling intensity. As this book relays with a vivid immediacy, it came to their doorsteps in hunger, disease, and measureless death. Ayers's Civil War emerges from the lives of everyday people as well as those who helped shape history—John Brown and Frederick Douglass, Lincoln, Jackson, and Lee. His story ends with the valley ravaged, Lincoln's support fragmenting, and Confederate forces massing for a battle at Gettysburg.
With a unique attention to time as the defining nature of history, AMERICAN PASSAGES offers students a view of American history as a complete, compelling narrative. AMERICAN PASSAGES emphasizes the intertwined nature of three key characteristics of time sequence, simultaneity, and contingency. With clarity and purpose, the authors convey how events grow from other events, people's actions, and broad structural changes (sequence), how apparently disconnected events occurred in close chronological proximity to one another and were situated in larger, shared contexts (simultaneity), and how history suddenly pivoted because of events, personalities, and unexpected outcomes (contingency). Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
This selection of documents offers an insightful look at one Northernand one Southern community only 200 miles apart in the ShenandoahValley during the Civil War.
With a unique attention to time as the defining nature of history, AMERICAN PASSAGES offers students a view of American history as a complete, compelling narrative. AMERICAN PASSAGES emphasizes the intertwined nature of three key characteristics of time sequence, simultaneity, and contingency. With clarity and purpose, the authors convey how events grow from other events, people's actions, and broad structural changes (sequence), how apparently disconnected events occurred in close chronological proximity to one another and were situated in larger, shared contexts (simultaneity), and how history suddenly pivoted because of events, personalities, and unexpected outcomes (contingency). Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Written by top scholars of American History, AMERICAN PASSAGES, BRIEF SECOND EDITION examines U.S. history the way people live?in the flow of real time. Rather than pursuing one topic (such as politics, culture, society, reform, the military, or economics) at a time, each chapter of the text interweaves important themes and issues into one clear narrative. Through this method of presentation as well as through the primary source material in every chapter, students can observe the many ways that events, movements, and groups of people have served to shape history and can learn to make connections between these themes and issues. This revision includes expanded review materials and pedagogy to help students get through the course as well as a free AMERICAN PASSAGES Book Companion Website created by Ed Ayers. This site includes chapter-by-chapter quizzing, interactive maps, videos, audio, and links to over 400 readings.
With a unique attention to time as the defining nature of history, CENGAGE ADVANTAGE BOOKS: AMERICAN PASSAGES: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 4e, offers students a view of American history as a complete, compelling narrative. AMERICAN PASSAGES emphasizes the intertwined nature of three key characteristics of time--sequence, simultaneity, and contingency. With clarity and purpose, the authors convey how events grow from other events, people's actions, and broad structural changes (sequence), how apparently disconnected events occurred in close chronological proximity to one another and were situated in larger, shared contexts (simultaneity), and how history suddenly pivoted because of events, personalities, and unexpected outcomes (contingency). To meet the demand for a low-cost, high-quality survey text, CENGAGE ADVANTAGE BOOKS: AMERICAN PASSAGES: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 4e, offers readers the complete text in an economically priced format. All volumes feature a paperbound, two-color format that appeals to those seeking a comprehensive, trade-sized history text. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Final Resting Places brings together some of the most important and innovative scholars of the Civil War era to reflect on what death and memorialization meant to the Civil War generation—and how those meanings still influence Americans today. In each essay, a noted historian explores a different type of gravesite—including large marble temples, unmarked graves beneath the waves, makeshift markers on battlefields, mass graves on hillsides, neat rows of military headstones, university graveyards, tombs without bodies, and small family plots. Each burial place tells a unique story of how someone lived and died; how they were mourned and remembered. Together, they help us reckon with the most tragic period of American history. CONTRUBUTORS: Terry Alford, Melodie Andrews, Edward L. Ayers, DeAnne Blanton, Michael Burlingame, Katherine Reynolds Chaddock, John M. Coski, William C. Davis, Douglas R. Egerton, Stephen D. Engle, Barbara Gannon, Michael P. Gray, Hilary Green, Allen C. Guelzo, Anna Gibson Holloway, Vitor Izecksohn, Caroline E. Janney, Michelle A. Krowl, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Jennifer M. Murray, Barton A. Myers, Timothy J. Orr, Christopher Phillips, Mark S. Schantz, Dana B. Shoaf, Walter Stahr, Michael Vorenberg, and Ronald C. White
What are we looking for when we buy a book to read? A sigh of time when the body relaxes and the brain still works, an escape to another place and time. Entertainment in any venue, whether it be action, inspirational, educational, dark, light, comedy, "how to," and on and on, "different strokes for different folks." This book is different in that it is made up of thirty writings, each piece was written in my own personal style. I have a mailing list of thirty people that have read each piece as it was written, and from them, perhaps a hundred more read each piece. Many of these readers encouraged me to put the pieces into book form and let everyone read them. So here we are, I hope you find this book entertaining and enlightening, incremental reading at its best.
With cutting-edge technology that makes full use of both a multi-platform CD-ROM and the Web, "The Valley of the Shadow" allows readers to navigate the past through Civil War letters, diaries, images, and music to explore two communities in America's Great Valley separated by only a few hundred miles yet on opposite sides of a desperate conflict. Photos & maps.
AMERICAN PASSAGES places a unique emphasis on time as the defining nature of history--how events lead to other events, actions, changes, and often-unexpected outcomes. The authors offer students a sensible, step-by-step, compelling narrative with balanced coverage of political, economic, social, cultural, military, religious, and intellectual history. Available in the following split options: AMERICAN PASSAGES, BRIEF, Fourth Edition (Chapters 1-30), ISBN: 978-0-495-90921-7; Volume I: To 1877 (Chapters 1-15), ISBN: 978-0-495-91520-1; Volume II: Since 1865 (Chapters 15-30), ISBN: 978-0-495-91521-8. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
AMERICAN PASSAGES places a unique emphasis on time as the defining nature of history--how events lead to other events, actions, changes, and often-unexpected outcomes. The authors offer students a sensible, step-by-step, compelling narrative with balanced coverage of political, economic, social, cultural, military, religious, and intellectual history. Available in the following split options: AMERICAN PASSAGES, BRIEF, Fourth Edition (Chapters 1-30), ISBN: 978-0-495-90921-7; Volume I: To 1877 (Chapters 1-15), ISBN: 978-0-495-91520-1; Volume II: Since 1865 (Chapters 15-30), ISBN: 978-0-495-91521-8. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Written by top scholars of American History, AMERICAN PASSAGES, BRIEF SECOND EDITION examines U.S. history the way people live?in the flow of real time. Rather than pursuing one topic (such as politics, culture, society, reform, the military, or economics) at a time, each chapter of the text interweaves important themes and issues into one clear narrative. Through this method of presentation as well as through the primary source material in every chapter, students can observe the many ways that events, movements, and groups of people have served to shape history and can learn to make connections between these themes and issues. This revision includes expanded review materials and pedagogy to help students get through the course as well as a free AMERICAN PASSAGES Book Companion Website created by Ed Ayers. This site includes chapter-by-chapter quizzing, interactive maps, videos, audio, and links to over 400 readings.
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