Reviews
"Few historians have managed to strike such an effective balance betweenhighly evocative details and a broad view of social and economic development.Edward Ayers has a marvelous eye and ear for recreating the voices, thelandscapes, and the human emotions of the past....This is a book that will longbe studied, debated, borrowed from, and imitated. It is a book that will make asignificant difference."--David Brion Davis, author of The Problem of Slavery inWestern Culture, "In the preface to a 1971 edition of a book on this period first publishedin 1951 I saif it was time for someone to write a new synthesis. After another20 years Edward Ayers has risen to the challenge admirably and produced thisexcellent book."--C. Vann Woodward, author of Origins of the New South, "Ayers's The Promise of the New South is the most ambitious,comprehensive, and original survey of post-Reconstruction Southern history toappear since Woodward's Origins....Ayers is in a good position to shed new lighton the most notorious activity of the New South years, the ritualistic lynchingof blacks....On broader issues of black-white relations...Ayers also has newinsights....Read alongside Woodward's Origins, Ayers's book deepens and enrichesour sense of the diversity and complexity of southern life and cautions againstsweeping generalizations that will not bear close examination in the light ofcareful empirical research....Many insights into the experiences of people ofboth races during a challenging and unsettling period."--George M. Fredrickson,The New York Review of Books, "Impressive....A comprehensive overview of an important era, drawing onthe best work of many historians."--Publishers Weekly, "Thanks to its extraordinary vitality, Origins of the New South is themonument that towers behind Edward Ayers's Promise of the New South; it is alsoa monument that Ayers's exciting new book is bound to replace. Here, at last,is a subtle, compelling biew of the late 19th-century South whose scholarship isup-to-date....Ambiguity, surprise, and gender analysis characterize The Promiseof the New South, which bristles with unexpected insights....In a synthesis thatcaptures the late 19th-century South in its bewildering complexity, Ayers doesget the New South right."--Washington Post Book World, "Some forty years after the appearance of C. Vann Woodward's Origins of the New South, we have a work of comparable depth, breadth, strength, and power....This history listens, and its talks."--Joel Williamson, author of A Rage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South sinceEmancipation, "Thanks to its extraordinary vitality, Origins of the New South is the monument that towers behind Edward Ayers's Promise of the New South; it is also a monument that Ayers's exciting new book is bound to replace. Here, at last, is a subtle, compelling biew of the late 19th-century Southwhose scholarship is up-to-date....Ambiguity, surprise, and gender analysis characterize The Promise of the New South, which bristles with unexpected insights....In a synthesis that captures the late 19th-century South in its bewildering complexity, Ayers does get the New South right."--WashingtonPost Book World, "A uniquely comprehensive cultural, political, and social history of post-Reconstruction....Succeeds in depicting the post-Reconstruction South not as a repressed backwater of American life, but as a region that, despite substantial injustices, made significant contributions to Americanlife."--Kirkus Reviews, "Few historians have managed to strike such an effective balance between highly evocative details and a broad view of social and economic development. Edward Ayers has a marvelous eye and ear for recreating the voices, the landscapes, and the human emotions of the past....This is a book thatwill long be studied, debated, borrowed from, and imitated. It is a book that will make a significant difference."--David Brion Davis, author of The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, "Stunningly significant and original...a beautifully written narrative of late nineteenth and early twentieth century southern history that ranges from politics to music, from race relations to class relations and provides readers with a brilliant synthesis that will stand in tandem with C.Vann Woodward's Origins of the New South as indispensable reading for students and scholars and general readers seeking the understand the South."--Harold D. Woodman, Purdue University, "Stunningly significant and original...a beautifully written narrative oflate nineteenth and early twentieth century southern history that ranges frompolitics to music, from race relations to class relations and provides readerswith a brilliant synthesis that will stand in tandem with C. Vann Woodward'sOrigins of the New South as indispensable reading for students and scholars andgeneral readers seeking the understand the South."--Harold D. Woodman, PurdueUniversity, "In the preface to a 1971 edition of a book on this period first published in 1951 I saif it was time for someone to write a new synthesis. After another 20 years Edward Ayers has risen to the challenge admirably and produced this excellent book."--C. Vann Woodward, author of Origins of theNew South, "Some forty years after the appearance of C. Vann Woodward's Origins ofthe New South, we have a work of comparable depth, breadth, strength, andpower....This history listens, and its talks."--Joel Williamson, author of ARage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South sinceEmancipation, "Impressive....A comprehensive overview of an important era, drawing on the best work of many historians."--Publishers Weekly, "Ayers's The Promise of the New South is the most ambitious, comprehensive, and original survey of post-Reconstruction Southern history to appear since Woodward's Origins....Ayers is in a good position to shed new light on the most notorious activity of the New South years, the ritualisticlynching of blacks....On broader issues of black-white relations...Ayers also has new insights....Read alongside Woodward's Origins, Ayers's book deepens and enriches our sense of the diversity and complexity of southern life and cautions against sweeping generalizations that will not bear closeexamination in the light of careful empirical research....Many insights into the experiences of people of both races during a challenging and unsettling period."--George M. Fredrickson, The New York Review of Books, "A rare achievement, the kind of breakthrough that moves a field onto a new plateau. Writing in the engaged and humane tradition of C. Vann Woodward, Ayers combines a fresh look at the political issues around which Woodward's work revolved with a vivid evocation of the joys, pathos, andcontradictions of everyday life....A gripping epic of social change."--Jacquelyn Hall, author of Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, "A rare achievement, the kind of breakthrough that moves a field onto anew plateau. Writing in the engaged and humane tradition of C. Vann Woodward,Ayers combines a fresh look at the political issues around which Woodward's workrevolved with a vivid evocation of the joys, pathos, and contradictions ofeveryday life....A gripping epic of social change."--Jacquelyn Hall, author ofLike a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World
