The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 / Edition 1

by Steven Hahn

Overview

Despite the vast changes in plantation agriculture following the Civil War and Reconstruction, the lot of small farmers was little improved. Examining the nonplantation region of upcountry Georgia as a microcosm of the South, Steven Hahn showed how farmers were buffeted by such forces as the unravelling of antebellum household economy, the development of market forces, the growth of a new class of merchants-landlords, and rising tensions between town and countryside--and how their resentments fueld the Populist movement at the end of the 19th century. For this updated edition, Hahn will add new material to discuss how the book has stood up since it was published over twenty years ago, how the arguments and questions were received, and what influence they may have had on scholarship. He will also consider what has happened to historical interest in Populism, poor white people and populist politics, as well as why he thinks it likely that interest may revive and what sort of questions and arguments may drive it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195306705
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/18/2006
Edition description:	Updated Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	8.28(w) x 5.66(h) x 0.65(d)
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)

Editorial Reviews

"Hahn's use of primary and secondary sources is extraordinary. He mixes rich quotations with clear writing."—The Journal of American History

"Hahn's study is impressively argued and richly documented. Its intensive and skillful use of local sources gives it a substantial and authoritative quality that disarms criticism."—The New York Review of Books

"Indispensable reading for all students of southern history and the history of American dissent."—David Brion Davis, Yale University

"A landmark book....Hahn has pioneered part of a long-neglected subject of nineteenth-century America."—Journal of Social History

"Engagingly written, provocative."—American Historical Review

From the Publisher