Effective Texts for Teaching About the Old and New South

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Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996
From: Richard Straw
Subject: Effective texts for Old South?

Could I suggest a new thread on effective texts that people use in their courses on the Old and New South periods. I am beginning to teach these courses after having been away from them for awhile and I'd like to hear what texts are currently popular. I have taught the New South several times recently and have used Ayers' _Promise..._ plus Joel Williamson's _Rage for Order_; Kirby, _Rural Worlds Lost_; _Strange Career of Jim Crow_; Grantham, _The South in Modern America_, plus _To Kill a Mockingbird_. I haven't taught the Old South yet but will next year. What works? What doesn't? How have people integrated the texts into lectures. I do a lot of lecturing, plus organized discussions, collaborative learning exercises, and informal in-class writing. Thanks for any help. Please reply either to the list or to me via email.

Richard Straw, Radford University
Radford, Va.
rstraw@runet.edu

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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996
From: David Carlton
Subject: Old South Texts

David Carlton writes:

In response to Richard Straw,

The most effective of the texts I've used in recent years are the two Escott and Goldfield readers, *Major Problems in the History of the American South,* dividing in 1865. They provide a fine mix of primary and secondary readings, and the first volume serendipitously fit my prior organization remarkably well. They've also allowed me to do more with short writing and discussion assignments, which I find work well to engage students in the stuff of history while still allowing me to handle the basics in lectures.

Another primary source option that I'm just starting to experiment with (partly because I have a volume in the series) is the new Bedford Series in History and Culture, which presents short primary sources in an inexpensive format. Noteworthy in this series are David Blight's edition of the *Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass* (which I've used in the US survey) and a couple of new titles, William Link's *Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths* on southern progressivism and Kenneth Greenberg's new edition of the *Confessions of Nat Turner.*

As for monographs, for the Old South I get good student response for Blassingame's *Slave Community,* but the one real essential, to my mind, is *American Slavery, American Freedom*; noone can understand region or nation without coming to grips with it.

David L. Carlton
Associate Professor of History
Vanderbilt University
P.O. Box 1523, Sta. B
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
carltodl@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
(615) 322-3326

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Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996
From: Randy Shifflett
Subject: More on Old South Texts

Randy Shifflett writes:

I would like to second David Carlton's suggestions on readings in southern history. I have used the Escott/Goldfield Major Problems texts and they have worked very well for me. The selection of documents is well-chosen, the brief essays provide just enough interpretation without getting undergraduates bogged down in the historiography, and the texts are topically suited to my interests in southern history. Standard textbooks, such as Cooper and Terrill, have not worked as well for me. The major problems series may also be supplemented with additional readings such as those suggested by Carlton or others, depending upon one's special interests. If you want more documents, Richard, you might try Richard Purday, DOCUMENT SETS FOR THE SOUTH IN U.S. HISTORY (Heath, 1991). Although pricey, BEFORE FREEDOM CAME: AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH (Virginia, 1991) is a handsomely illustrated and very readable book on the subject. Theodore Rosengarten's ALL GOD'S LIFE IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH (Virginia, 1991) is a handsomely illustrated and very readable book on the subject. Theodore Rosengarten's ALL GOD'S DANGERS or SUCH AS US also provides the kind of material that I have been more successful in getting undergraduates to read. Sometimes I ask students to choose readings from a bibliography of southern literature where I include a list of novels and have them write a brief essay relating literature and history. The list includes the major southern writers, such as Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, Walker Percy, etc. In southern history, we have been blessed with a wealth of material.

Randy Shifflett
Dept of History
Virginia Tech
Shifflet@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu