Author Description
As An Age Of Empire And Industry Dawned In The Wake Of American Civil War, Southerners Grappled With What It Meant To Be Modern. The Fair Expositions Popular At This Time Allowed Southerners To Explore This Changing World On Their Own Terms. On A Local, National, And Global Stage, African Americans, New South Boosters, New Women, And Civil War Soldiers Presented Their Dreams Of The Future To Prove To The World How Rapidly The South Had Embraced And, In The Words Of Henry Grady In 1890, Built From Pitiful Resources A Great And Expanding Empire. Nowhere Was This More Apparent Than At The Atlanta And Nashville World's Fairs Held At The Close Of The Nineteenth Century. Here, Southerners Presented Themselves As Modern And Imperial Citizens Ready To Spread The South's Culture And Racial Politics Across The Globe. Unlike The World's Columbian Exposition Held In Chicago In 1893, The Southern Expositions Also Gave African Americans An Opportunity To Present Their Own Vision Of Modernity Within The Fairs' Negro Buildings. At The Fairs, Southern African Americans Defined Themselves As Both A Separate Race And A Modern People, As New Negroes. In Dream Of The Future, Cardon Explores These Assertions Of Southern Identity And Culture, Critically Placing Them Within The Wider Context Of Imperialism And Industrialization.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how Southerners utilized world's fair expositions at the end of the nineteenth century to construct and project a modern, imperial identity in the post-Civil War era. Nathan Cardon, a historian specializing in the American South, analyzes the Atlanta and Nashville expositions as critical sites where diverse groups—including New South boosters, women, veterans, and African Americans—negotiated their place in a rapidly industrializing global landscape. By examining these fairs, the author argues that Southerners sought to validate their region's progress and cultural influence while simultaneously navigating complex racial politics and imperial ambitions.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the Atlanta and Nashville world's fairs held in the late nineteenth century.
- Examination of the 'Negro Buildings' as spaces for African American self-definition and modernity.
- Exploration of the intersection between Southern regional identity, industrialization, and global imperialism.
Scope Limits
- The study focuses primarily on the Southern perspective and does not provide an exhaustive comparison with all Northern or international expositions.
- The analysis is limited to the specific timeframe surrounding the close of the nineteenth century.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Historians and scholars of the American South recognize this work as a significant contribution to understanding the cultural and political motivations behind late nineteenth-century Southern public exhibitions. Readers frequently note the author's ability to synthesize complex social dynamics into a coherent argument regarding regional identity and modernity.
Page Count:
224
Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190274735
ISBN-13:
9780190274733
History
Imperialism
Southern History
African American
American History
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