Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917
The relationship between a town and its local institutions of higher education is often fraught with turmoil. The complicated tensions between the identity of a city and the character of a university can challenge both communities. Lexington, Kentucky, displays these characteristic conflicts, with two historic educational institutions within its city limits: Transylvania University, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the University of Kentucky, formerly "State College." An investigative cultural history of the town that called itself "The Athens of the West," Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in Lexington, Kentucky, 1880–1917 depicts the origins and development of this relationship at the turn of the twentieth century. Lexington's location in the upper South makes it a rich region for examination. Despite a history of turmoil and violence, Lexington's universities serve as catalysts for change. Until the publication of this book, Lexington was still characterized by academic interpretations that largely consider Southern intellectual life an oxymoron. Kolan Thomas Morelock illuminates how intellectual life flourished in Lexington from the period following Reconstruction to the nation's entry into the First World War. Drawing from local newspapers and other primary sources from around the region, Morelock offers a comprehensive look at early town-gown dynamics in a city of contradictions. He illuminates Lexington's identity by investigating the lives of some influential personalities from the era, including Margaret Preston and Joseph Tanner. Focusing on literary societies and dramatic clubs, the author inspects the impact of social and educational university organizations on the town's popular culture from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era. Morelock's work is an enlightening analysis of the intersection between student and citizen intellectual life in the Bluegrass city during an era of profound change and progress. Taking the Town explores an overlooked aspect of Lexington's history during a time in which the city was establishing its cultural and intellectual identity.

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Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917
The relationship between a town and its local institutions of higher education is often fraught with turmoil. The complicated tensions between the identity of a city and the character of a university can challenge both communities. Lexington, Kentucky, displays these characteristic conflicts, with two historic educational institutions within its city limits: Transylvania University, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the University of Kentucky, formerly "State College." An investigative cultural history of the town that called itself "The Athens of the West," Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in Lexington, Kentucky, 1880–1917 depicts the origins and development of this relationship at the turn of the twentieth century. Lexington's location in the upper South makes it a rich region for examination. Despite a history of turmoil and violence, Lexington's universities serve as catalysts for change. Until the publication of this book, Lexington was still characterized by academic interpretations that largely consider Southern intellectual life an oxymoron. Kolan Thomas Morelock illuminates how intellectual life flourished in Lexington from the period following Reconstruction to the nation's entry into the First World War. Drawing from local newspapers and other primary sources from around the region, Morelock offers a comprehensive look at early town-gown dynamics in a city of contradictions. He illuminates Lexington's identity by investigating the lives of some influential personalities from the era, including Margaret Preston and Joseph Tanner. Focusing on literary societies and dramatic clubs, the author inspects the impact of social and educational university organizations on the town's popular culture from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era. Morelock's work is an enlightening analysis of the intersection between student and citizen intellectual life in the Bluegrass city during an era of profound change and progress. Taking the Town explores an overlooked aspect of Lexington's history during a time in which the city was establishing its cultural and intellectual identity.

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Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917

Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917

by Kolan Thomas Morelock
Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917

Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917

by Kolan Thomas Morelock

Hardcover(1)

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Overview

The relationship between a town and its local institutions of higher education is often fraught with turmoil. The complicated tensions between the identity of a city and the character of a university can challenge both communities. Lexington, Kentucky, displays these characteristic conflicts, with two historic educational institutions within its city limits: Transylvania University, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the University of Kentucky, formerly "State College." An investigative cultural history of the town that called itself "The Athens of the West," Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in Lexington, Kentucky, 1880–1917 depicts the origins and development of this relationship at the turn of the twentieth century. Lexington's location in the upper South makes it a rich region for examination. Despite a history of turmoil and violence, Lexington's universities serve as catalysts for change. Until the publication of this book, Lexington was still characterized by academic interpretations that largely consider Southern intellectual life an oxymoron. Kolan Thomas Morelock illuminates how intellectual life flourished in Lexington from the period following Reconstruction to the nation's entry into the First World War. Drawing from local newspapers and other primary sources from around the region, Morelock offers a comprehensive look at early town-gown dynamics in a city of contradictions. He illuminates Lexington's identity by investigating the lives of some influential personalities from the era, including Margaret Preston and Joseph Tanner. Focusing on literary societies and dramatic clubs, the author inspects the impact of social and educational university organizations on the town's popular culture from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era. Morelock's work is an enlightening analysis of the intersection between student and citizen intellectual life in the Bluegrass city during an era of profound change and progress. Taking the Town explores an overlooked aspect of Lexington's history during a time in which the city was establishing its cultural and intellectual identity.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813125046
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Publication date: 08/22/2008
Series: Thomas D. Clark Studies in Education, Public Policy, and Social Change
Edition description: 1
Pages: 434
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Kolan Thomas Morelock is director of programs at the Men's Hope Center in Lexington, Kentucky. He received a Ph.D. in Studies in Higher Education from the University of Kentucky. He served as an instructor at the University of Kentucky and has over 30 years of experience as a social worker.

Table of Contents


Foreword     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Prologue: Panning for Gold     1
Lexington in the Gilded Age: Public Voices     13
"Put Me in Class with the Widow Who Gave the Mite": Lexington's Joseph Tanner in the Gilded Age     49
Campus Prominence: Collegiate Literary Societies in Nineteenth-Century Lexington     71
Community Presence: Collegiate Literary Societies in Gilded Age Lexington     109
"This City's Never Dull": Public Culture in Progressive Era Lexington     143
"In Her Most Charming, Characteristic Way": Lexington's Margaret Preston in the Progressive Era     195
The Dramatic Clubs Take the Stage: An Extracurricular Succession in Prewar Lexington     243
Epilogue: Postwar Lexington-So Long, Gilded Age     275
Appendixes     285
Notes     303
Bibliography     383
Index     395
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