Once the lifeblood of large estates and farms throughout the American South and East; antebellum plantations today serve as windows into one of the most controversial eras of U.S. history. Though many of these grand homes have been lost; scores more still exist; some as National Memorial sites; National Historic Landmarks; or National Historic Places. Award-winning historian Robin Lattimore explores the history of antebellum plantations in this concise guide to the working estates that dotted the U.S. landscape before the Civil War; many of which still remain. Whether Greek Revival; Federal; or Tidewater in style; antebellum plantations were grand and stately; reflecting the wealth and power of their often slave-owning landowners. From an examination of the architecture of antebellum plantations to a look at the plantation system and its effects on the South; Southern Plantations is a beautiful account of these windows to the past.
#969890 in Books Polity Press 1993Format: ImportOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .77 x 5.98l; 1.08 #File Name: 0745612261368 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Thorough; Meaty; Intellectual; ExcellentBy John D. ComegysI am slowly reading this book and savoring every paragraph. This is a meaty; scholarly work pitched at a highly intellectual and abstract level. It is very original according to other (scholarly) reviews by experts and raises the bar for explanations of the Spanish Conquest. (I am a serious amateur; not a highly trained scholar of things Meso-American or Mexican.) Gruzinsky carefully explains just what happened when the high civilization of Mesoamerica was conquered. How the common man and 'native elite' adapted; fought to retain their rights; positions; and culture is carefully and surprisingly fully explained. You might think of this as "La Otra Conquista" for intellectuals. The Aztecs; Mixtecs and Purepecha didn't just magically turn into to Spaniards. They didn't just role over and quit. They struggled; adapted; prevailed and slowly became modern Mexicans; and this book's excellent work shows how it happened.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. An outstanding rethinking of the meaning of conquestBy F. P. BarbieriReally outstanding books of history almost inevitably have certain basic common features; in particular; long and patient work on immense amount of often obscure original sources. Therefore favourable reviews often tend to have similar features; in particular praise for the author's immense; or at least uncommon; learning and labour. I dare say that; from the reader's point of view; negative reviews may be more fun; since a book can be bad in infinite ways but good in only one of a few. In this case; I will have to be boring: since this outstanding revisitation of colonial Mexican history is impressively learned; with a strong grasp of basic sources across at least three centuries (and if you think that's easy; just try it); insightful; leaving a clear impression of native spirituality and world-view and of its difference with the Christian and European world of the invaders; and novel. That is the main point. Gruzinski comes to his material with a question nobody before him had asked: how did the natives; heirs of a complex if barbarous civilization and of a very large variety of cultures; react to the presence among them of what was at first; and for considerable time; an alien culture with largely different assumptions and a wholly different world-view? He traces the interaction of Spanish Catholicism and political power with the various local cultures (never failing to make clear that Mexico was not a single culture; but an empire dominating or overshadowing a large number of different tribes) across three centuries; showing that as late as the eighteenth centuries there were broad unassimilated areas - which however tended to fade - and suggesting a subterranean continuity; bubbling up in the unsettled world of pulquerias and colonial slums; between the failures of assimilation in colonial times and the strong anti-clerical currents of post-independence Mexico; which are still a factor in the country today.Gruzinski's writing is straightforward though not very plain - big words are not avoided and some sentences may take time for the ordinary reader to grasp. But he avoids the bane of the French intellectual - airy generalizations and general pretentiousness: he always has his eye to the object; and is most often accurate; fair; and careful. Some of his views may; I suppose; be challenged: for instance; he treats the enormously widespread problem of alcoholism in the seventeenth century as a by-product of failed assimilation; yet Bernal Diaz del Castillo (one of Cortez's own soldiers; who wrote a memoir at the end of his life) tells us that massive and vicious drunkenness; including details too revolting to mention here; was a feature of pre-Conquest society as he encountered it. Gruzinski; being a pioneer; may have got some things wrong; as pioneers do. But he has given us a completely new and very valuable way to look at an old issue; and done so in a very well-organized; capable and professional way.
