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Journal of Interdisciplinary History 34.4 (2004) 656-657



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Paternalism in a Southern City: Race, Religion, and Gender in Augusta, Georgia. Edited by Edward J. Cashin and Glenn T. Eskew (Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2001) 240pp. $50.00

The editors of this collection contend that paternalism provides a framework for understanding southern history. The essays attempt to provide "new" understanding of Augusta's history, employing this analytical frame combined with the "trinity" of "analytical tools"—race, class, and gender. As promised, all of the essays say something about "paternalism." The opening essay by Cashin describes in broad terms the setting and conceptual scheme for the remainder of the essays. Cashin's piece essentially relates anecdotes illustrative of paternalism and the aforementioned "trinity," revealing little understanding of the distinction between class and paternalism as modes of analysis and how the two intersected in the South.

The next essay by Michele Gillespie examines the work of women in Augusta. Gillespie claims originality, but offers little that is strikingly new. Anyone familiar with the Old South or the Old United States will not be stunned to read that women occupied a subordinate place in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century society. Lee Ann Whites' contribution, however, breaks some new ground in her examination of male mill workers' struggles to redefine themselves as men. She uses the organization of the Knights of Labor in Augusta and the strikes of 1886 as a window through which to view male reactions to a perceived loss of power at home and their attempts to reassert their dominion under new circumstances.

Two essays deal with some aspect of religion. Eskew writes about interracial cooperation in the formation of African-American Methodist churches in Augusta. He correctly acknowledges the controlling nature of the paternalism behind white promotion of blacks' organization of churches, but emphasizes blacks' initiative in exploiting situations in order to build institutions that they controlled. Similarly, Julia Walsh writes about the attempts by "uptown" churches to minister to, and influence the behavior of, working-class whites in Augusta. She finds that missionary activity by members of "first churches" in the city met [End Page 656] with a tepid response among workers who appeared to have contradictory ideas about religion. Space limitations did not permit Walsh to explore fully class differences in theology. Bobby J. Donaldson's and Kent Anderson Leslies' contributions employ biography to explore the class tensions within a black community trying to deal with a system of race relations that, in theory at least, reduced all blacks to the same, lowly social and cultural status.

This collection offers a few insights into life in a southern community, but largely covers old ground. It might be more innovative to question explicitly whether race, class, and gender, as currently invoked by some historians, lacks analytical rigor. At times, the authors simply seemed to be sprinkling race, class, and gender into their narratives like a novice cook tosses spices into an unfamiliar recipe. With enough of the right ingredients, perhaps someone will eat, or publish the finished product. Unfortunately, such an approach to cooking or history rarely proves satisfying.



Henry M. McKiven, Jr.
University of South Alabama


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