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Article: The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- December 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861. By Jonathan Daniel Wells (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. xv plus 321 pp. $59.95).
It is difficult to imagine that after decades of analysis and voluminous publications on the subject there are still major gaps in our understanding of the antebellum South. Yet this is the premise of Jonathan Daniel Wells's provocative new study The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861. Addressing such classic works as C. Vann Woodward's Origins of the New South as well as more recent studies of the Old South that have virtually ignored the presence of a middle class, Wells makes a ...