Customer Reviews

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 11: Agriculture and Industry

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I bought this book to serve as a quick desk reference for various industries in the South. I thought that I could look up iron, for example, and find a good overview of the historiography--when and how did the industry develop in the South, where were some of the centers of industry, etc. That is not the case for coal, iron, or tobacco, which are just three fairly significant industries that I spot checked. These entries do not account for the latest scholarship and most pick up in the post-Civil War years ignoring industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Likewise tobacco picks up with the yellow-leaf industry of the late 19th century in NC and KY with no mention of how the sweet variety was developed and why flue-curing came about in the first place (which is what spurred the enormous growth of the industry in the 20th century). For me, it was a wasted purchase because I don't trust the entries--regardless of limited space, some detail needs to be included or referenced in the additional readings for it to be a quality encyclopedia article.