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78erra war history conditionals to the ideology of the Deep South does not get its due here. Why was it powerful in three states so politically and economically unlike most of the South, and why was it not shared by all Unionist politicians? What else—local identities, experiences—divided Unionist ranks? That a book raises new and unanswered questions is, of course, another measure of its achievement. Reluctant Confederates tells us much about the political diversity of the Old South, and, especially in conjunction with important new works by Lacy Ford and John Inscoe, illuminates the ideas and social practices that nonetheless united it. Ralph Mann University of Colorado Banking in the American South from the Age of Jackson to Reconstruction . By Larry Schweikart. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. Pp. xvi, 367. $35.00.) Well published in the field of Southern and Southwest banking history, Larry Schweikart in this volume works from his 1983 dissertation to describe antebellum banking in the South during the three decades following 1836. He adopts a typology that divides the antebellum South into two groups: the Old South (Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana ) and the New South (Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida). Within these two groups, banking and its regulation broadly followed two patterns: government encouragement of competition with little state involvement (Old South), and an emphasis on government control or regulation (New South). Several factors explain the different banking approaches. The Old South states seemed more Whiggish and more commercially oriented. They also exhibited more thriving businesses and more diversified economies . In contrast, the New South states reflected a commingling of the Jacksonian fear of banks with the Jacksonian desire to provide equal opportunity for all to gain access to credit for the benefit of agriculture. While the Democrats did not necessarily oppose banking, ultimately the Jacksonians proved to be the villains, for they "created contradictory and self-defeating banking regulations everywhere they went, especially in the states of the New South" (189). Using the Old South-New South dichotomy as a guide, Schweikart opens with a discussion of the political economy of banking in the 183Os. He follows with an examination of the Panic of 1837; the reaction of the Southern states to the Panic; banking policy and regulation before the Civil War; the interrelationship of bankers, planters, and Southern society; the sufficiency of bank credit for economic expansion; and the impact of the Civil War. A number of useful tables enrich a narrative BOOK REVIEWS79 based upon a blend of primary accounts and the latest scholarship in the field. Throughout Banking in the American South, the author is enlightening and challenging. He modifies Peter Temin's assessment of the Panic of 1837, takes issue occasionally with Bray Hammond, feels that Southern banking was not a colonial appendage to that of the North, believes that Southern banks provided sufficient capital to support Southern industrial development (had the region chosen to industrialize), finds that Southern banks fairly easily weathered the Panic of 1857, and contends that on the eve of the Civil War banking was sound in the Old South states and improving in most of those of the New South. The title is somewhat misleading, for this is not simply an institutional history of banking but also a consideration of the bankers as people, men who were not subservient to the planters or pawns in a slave-owning society, and men who generally were loyal to the Confederacy regardless of their convictions before secession. Despite the contributions of Schweikart, some caveats must be lodged. Too often, poor sentence structure undermines the effectiveness of his arguments. Citations are not as plentiful or as complete in some cases as might be desired. The index is suspect—despite references to such an important subject as "counterfeiting," that term fails to find a place in the index. A consideration of the Subtreasury and its impact on Southern banking is altogether missing. The typological distinction between the Old South states and the New South states (with which Schweikart seems more familiar) appears suspect on occasion. Nevertheless, given the scope of this work, it is a valuable addition to the literature of the antebellum...

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