Review by Choice Review
Ash's monograph is a rich social, cultural, and economic history of the 13 most prosperous counties of middle Tennessee, from the antebellum period to the end of Reconstruction. He argues persuasively that middle Tennessee before 1861 was a region with an affluent, mainly agricultural economy that was well diversified. Furthermore, its society, though patriarchal, was one in which white unity was the rule. Middle-sized slaveholders held the greater part of the wealth, though practically all white families shared in the affluence. In short, a rule based on a consensus prevailed. Then came the sudden disruption of the War, which found middle Tennessee occupied longer by the enemy than any other part of the Confederacy. Violence in the form of well-organized guerillas as well as bandits brought on vast physical devastation as well as a breakdown in order and stability. Of course, the major change was the emergence of blacks from slavery to freedom. The biracial antebellum society was replaced by two societies, black and white, each "increasingly insular, increasingly distinct." One of Ash's most surprising conclusions is that in the post-Civil War period, whites became even more agrarianized and blacks more urbanized, though a majority still lived in rural areas. There are 5 maps, 13 statistical tables, two appendixes, and a complete bibliography. Most welcome is the essay on secondary sources, one for each chapter, in which Ash incorporates his findings with the recent scholarship in this period of southern history. An absolute must in all college and university libraries. -J. Tricamo, San Francisco State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
