Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self, and Society in North Carolina, 1880-1920 (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) [Paperback]

James L. Leloudis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0807848085 | ISBN-13: 978-0807848081

Schooling the New South deftly combines social and political history, gender studies, and African American history into a story of educational reform. James Leloudis recreates North Carolina's classrooms as they existed at the turn of the century and explores the wide-ranging social and psychological implications of the transition from old-fashioned common schools to modern graded schools. He argues that this critical change in methods of instruction both reflected and guided the transformation of the American South. According to Leloudis, architects of the New South embraced the public school as an institution capable of remodeling their world according to the principles of free labor and market exchange. By altering habits of learning, they hoped to instill in students a vision of life that valued individual ambition and enterprise above the familiar relations of family, church, and community. Their efforts eventually created both a social and a pedagogical revolution, says Leloudis. Public schools became what they are today--the primary institution responsible for the socialization of children and therefore the principal battleground for society's conflicts over race, class, and gender.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This valuable piece of scholarship proves that reform is a never-ending cycle.

The Historian

A fascinating history of the intellectual development, ambitions, and efforts of a group of educational reformers.

Australasian Journal of American Studies

An exemplary piece of scholarship.

Journal of Southern History

[P]articularly effective in showing how the middle class used education as a means to establish a new social arrangement.

Educational Studies

Essential reading for students of the historical role of schools in American society.

American Historical Review

From the Inside Flap

Linking educational history to social change, this book shows how the transition from common schools to graded institutions (1880-1920) both reflected and guided the transformation of the American South.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (February 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807848085
• ISBN-13: 978-0807848081
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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