Overview

As a city of the upper South intimately connected to the northeastern cities, the southern slave trade, and the Virginia countryside, Richmond embodied many of the contradictions of mid-nineteenth-century America. Gregg D. Kimball expands the usual scope of urban studies by depicting the Richmond community as a series of dynamic, overlapping networks to show how various groups of Richmonders understood themselves and their society. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and private letters, Kimball elicits new perspectives regarding people's sense of identity. Kimball first situates the city and its residents within the larger American culture and Virginia countryside, especially noting the influence of plantation society and culture on Richmond's upper classes. Kimball then explores four significant groups of Richmonders: merchant families, the city's largest black church congregation, ironworkers, and militia volunteers. He describes the cultural world in which each group moved and shows how their perceptions were shaped by connections to and travels within larger economic, cultural, and ethnic spheres. Ironically, the merchant class's firsthand knowledge of the North confirmed and intensified their ""southernness,"" while the experience of urban African Americans and workers promoted a more expansive sense of community. This insightful work ultimately reveals how Richmonders' self-perceptions influenced the decisions they made during the sectional crisis, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, showing that people made rational choices about their allegiances based on established beliefs. American City, Southern Place is an important work of social history that sheds new light on cultural identity and opens a new window on nineteenth-century Richmond.

Full Product Details

Author:   Gregg D. Kimball
Publisher:   University of Georgia Press
Imprint:   University of Georgia Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.90cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.518kg
ISBN:  

9780820325460

ISBN 10:   0820325465
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   30 November 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of print, replaced by POD  
We will order this item for you from a manufatured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Reviews

This book is social history at its best. It is history at its most exciting. For it is the story of human beings caught in time and struggling for a place in posterity. --James L. Robertson Richmond Times-Dispatch Kimball's training and experience as both an academic and public historian combine the former's interpretive insights with the latter's talent for communicating succinctly and clearly with an eye for the relevant detail. A complex picture emerges of a city and a people carefully balancing their economic involvement with a larger urban world and their cultural attachment to Virginia and the South. --David Goldfield Southern Cultures A brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. --American Historical Review American City, Southern Place is beautifully written, deeply researched, and informed by a humane understanding of all manner of people. --Daniel W. Crofts author of Cobb's Ordeal Kimball's book is a brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. . . . [An] important and compelling work. --Kathleen C. Berkeley University of North Carolina, Wilmington Well written and well argued . . . An important contribution to the study of antebellum southern urbanization. Kimball's exhaustive research in a wide variety of manuscript sources allows him to show the evolution of an 'American' city that had distinctly southern roots. --Georgia Historical Quarterly A carefully researched, clearly written, and thoroughly engaging social history. --Journal of Southern History A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants. . . . A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South. --Journal of American History

A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants ... A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South. Kimball's training and experience as both an academic and public historian combine the former's interpretive insights with the latter's talent for communicating succinctly and clearly with an eye for the relevant detail. A complex picture emerges of a city and a people carefully balancing their economic involvement with a larger urban world and their cultural attachment to Virginia and the South. --David Goldfield, Southern Cultures Well written and well argued . . . An important contribution to the study of antebellum southern urbanization. Kimball's exhaustive research in a wide variety of manuscript sources allows him to show the evolution of an 'American' city that had distinctly southern roots. -- Georgia Historical Quarterly A brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. -- American Historical Review This book is social history at its best. It is history at its most exciting. For it is the story of human beings caught in time and struggling for a place in posterity. --James L. Robertson, Richmond Times-Dispatch Kimball's book is a brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. . . . [An] important and compelling work. --Kathleen C. Berkeley, University of North Carolina, Wilmington A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants. . . . A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South. -- Journal of American History A carefully researched, clearly written, and thoroughly engaging social history. -- Journal of Southern History American City, Southern Place is beautifully written, deeply researched, and informed by a humane understanding of all manner of people. --Daniel W. Crofts, author of Cobb's Ordeal This book is social history at its best. It is history at its most exciting. For it is the story of human beings caught in time and struggling for a place in posterity. --James L. Robertson Richmond Times-Dispatch American City, Southern Place is beautifully written, deeply researched, and informed by a humane understanding of all manner of people. --Daniel W. Crofts author of Cobb's Ordeal Kimball's book is a brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. . . . [An] important and compelling work. --Kathleen C. Berkeley University of North Carolina, Wilmington Well written and well argued . . . An important contribution to the study of antebellum southern urbanization. Kimball's exhaustive research in a wide variety of manuscript sources allows him to show the evolution of an 'American' city that had distinctly southern roots. --Georgia Historical Quarterly Kimball's training and experience as both an academic and public historian combine the former's interpretive insights with the latter's talent for communicating succinctly and clearly with an eye for the relevant detail. A complex picture emerges of a city and a people carefully balancing their economic involvement with a larger urban world and their cultural attachment to Virginia and the South. --David Goldfield Southern Cultures A carefully researched, clearly written, and thoroughly engaging social history. --Journal of Southern History A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants. . . . A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South. --Journal of American History A brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. --American Historical Review This book is social history at its best. It is history at its most exciting. For it is the story of human beings caught in time and struggling for a place in posterity.--James L. Robertson Richmond Times-Dispatch American City, Southern Place is beautifully written, deeply researched, and informed by a humane understanding of all manner of people.--Daniel W. Crofts author of Cobb's Ordeal Kimball's book is a brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make. . . . [An] important and compelling work.--Kathleen C. Berkeley University of North Carolina, Wilmington Well written and well argued . . . An important contribution to the study of antebellum southern urbanization. Kimball's exhaustive research in a wide variety of manuscript sources allows him to show the evolution of an 'American' city that had distinctly southern roots.-- Georgia Historical Quarterly Kimball's training and experience as both an academic and public historian combine the former's interpretive insights with the latter's talent for communicating succinctly and clearly with an eye for the relevant detail. A complex picture emerges of a city and a people carefully balancing their economic involvement with a larger urban world and their cultural attachment to Virginia and the South.--David Goldfield Southern Cultures A carefully researched, clearly written, and thoroughly engaging social history.-- Journal of Southern History A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants. . . . A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South.-- Journal of American History A brilliant and beautifully crafted study of the complex relationship among the concept of place, the construction of cultural identity, and, ultimately, the political choices people make.-- American Historical Review

A rich study of Richmond's antebellum society and culture that explores the manners, styles, and outlooks of its inhabitants ... A valuable addition to the growing historiography of urban places in the South.

Author Information

Gregg D. Kimball is director of the Publications and Educational Services Division of the Library of Virginia.

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