The importance of the South in the development of the United States has always been clear, but in recent decades the rise of the sunbelt-politically, economically, and culturally-has made the significance of the region's history all the more apparent. In The Human Tradition in the Old South, Professor James C. Klotter has gathered twelve insightful essays that explore the region's past and ponder its place in the broader story of the nation. This highly readable volume presents the South's rich and varied history through the lives of a wide range of individuals-men and women, African Americans, whites, and Native Americans from many different Southern states. Written by well-established scholars these mini-biographies collectively range in time from the late colonial/early national period to the present. Filled with lively stories of fascinating Southerners and the times in which they lived, The Human Tradition in the Old South is ideal for courses on Southern history, social history, race relations, and the American history survey course.

Regardless of color or class, men in the Old South hunted; the meat, hides, and furs they brought home reinforced the hunters' claims to patriarchal authority as providers for their households. During the antebellum era, many white men also began using the hunt as a venue for the display of increasingly complex ideas about gender, race, class, and community. Proctor (history, Simpson College) explores the social drama of the hunt as it was conducted between 1800 and 1860, through accounts in books, letters, journals, and periodicals. He looks at the historical developments that shaped hunting as well as interactions between men and women and between owners and slaves. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This study of Pope County, Arkansas in the 1850s represents an analysis of the pioneer decade of an upper South region largely settled by yeoman farmers; the presence of slaves constituting approximately ten percent of the population also enables one to view that peculiar institution in a non-plantation environment. As we celebrate the century mark of the 1890 census, which inspired Frederick Jackson Turner's study of the influence of the frontier on the American experience, historians turn anew to examine the influence of that frontier. Today insights provided by computer assisted quantification, "thick description" of social anthropologists and the concept of the New Social History shed additional light on that quest for meaning. This study is a first-rate example of the New Social History in practice. Contents: The Beginnings; Communications and Transportation; Agriculture; Table Fare; Artisans, Business and Professional Activities; Disorder and Crimes; Morbidi Mortality; Marriage; We are Family; Education; Religion; Slavery; and Moving In-Moving Out.

African Americans have had a profound impact on the economy, culture, and social landscape of southern Appalachia but only after a surge of study in the last two decades have their contributions been recognized by white culture. Appalachians and Race brings together 18 essays on the black experience in the mountain South in the nineteenth century. These essays provide a broad and diverse sampling of the best work on race relations in this region. The contributors consider a variety of topics: black migration into and out of the region, educational and religious missions directed at African Americans, the musical influences of interracial contacts, the political activism of blacks during reconstruction and beyond, the racial attitudes of white highlanders, and much more. Drawing from the particulars of southern mountain experiences, this collection brings together important studies of the dynamics of race not only within the region, but throughout the South and the nation over the course of the turbulent nineteenth century.

Pavie in the Borderlands describes the cultural forces that shaped the trans-Mississippi West between 1765 and 1838 by focusing on the extraordinary Pavie family. From their settlement on the Louisiana frontier, three generations of Pavies witnessed the creation of the U.S. and its territorial expansion through the Louisiana Purchase. Betje Black Klier relates the experiences of the Pavies through the adventures of their kinsman Thèodore, an enterprising eighteen-year-old who left provincial France to visit Louisiana and Texas in 1829 and 1830. Thèodore kept a journal and published his exploits in a volume entitled Souvenirs atlantiques. In the first of its two parts, Pavie in the Borderlands provides the story of the family's early experiences in North America; a biographical study of Thèodore; translations of some of his colorful letters from the borderlands; and an analysis of how his travels transformed him. The second part of the volume presents the first English translation of a substantial portion of Thèodore's journal, including reproductions of his sketches of Louisiana and Texas environs. Klier unveils the young scholar and artist as the most significant nineteenth-century travel writer to journey west of the Mississippi. By intertwining Louisiana and Texas history with French history, Pavie in the Borderlands provides important new insights on the region's environmental, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual history.

By the flip of a coin, Thomas Dionysius Clark became intertwined in the vast history of Kentucky. In 1928, Clark received scholarships to both the University of Cincinnati and to the University of Kentucky. Kentucky won the coin toss and the claim to one of the South's eminent historians. In 1990, when the Kentucky General Assembly honored Clark by declaring him Kentucky's Historian Laureate for life, Governor Brereton Jones described Clark as "Kentucky's greatest treasure." Historian, advocate, educator, preservationist, publisher, writer, mentor, friend, Kentuckian—Dr. Clark has filled all these roles and more. Thomas D. Clark of Kentucky is a celebration of his life and careerby just a few of those who have felt his influence and shared his enthusiasm for his adopted home state of Kentucky.