Nathan Cardon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190274726
- eISBN:
- 9780190888503
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190274726.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, Social History
The introduction argues that the Atlanta and Nashville international expositions were spaces through which white and African American southerners exhibited themselves as modern citizens committed to ...
More
The introduction argues that the Atlanta and Nashville international expositions were spaces through which white and African American southerners exhibited themselves as modern citizens committed to joining the nation in an imperial future. For the New South ideologues who backed the fairs, the expositions were more than celebratory carnivals advertising the region’s resources; they were didactic events that would modernize the region’s rural population and convince the world of the South’s modernity. The introduction contextualizes the fairs within the New South, provides a history of Atlanta and Nashville as quintessential New South cities, offers a definition of modernity, and poses the question of why mass and speed were alien to turn-of-the-century southerners.Less
The introduction argues that the Atlanta and Nashville international expositions were spaces through which white and African American southerners exhibited themselves as modern citizens committed to joining the nation in an imperial future. For the New South ideologues who backed the fairs, the expositions were more than celebratory carnivals advertising the region’s resources; they were didactic events that would modernize the region’s rural population and convince the world of the South’s modernity. The introduction contextualizes the fairs within the New South, provides a history of Atlanta and Nashville as quintessential New South cities, offers a definition of modernity, and poses the question of why mass and speed were alien to turn-of-the-century southerners.
Nathan Cardon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190274726
- eISBN:
- 9780190888503
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190274726.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, Social History
A Dream of the Future examines how southerners at the end of the nineteenth century worked through the major questions facing a nation undergoing profound change. In an age of empire and industry, ...
More
A Dream of the Future examines how southerners at the end of the nineteenth century worked through the major questions facing a nation undergoing profound change. In an age of empire and industry, southerners grappled with what it meant to be modern. At Atlanta’s 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition and Nashville’s 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, white and black southerners endeavored to understand how their region could be industrial and imperial on its own terms. On a local, national, and global stage, African Americans, New South boosters, New Women, and Civil War veterans presented their own dreams of the future. White southerners at the fairs exhibited a way of life that embraced racial segregation and industrial capitalism, while African Americans accommodated, engaged, and contested this vision. The Atlanta and Nashville expositions are representative of a developing Jim Crow modernity through which white and black southerners constructed themselves as the objects and subjects of modernity during the formative years of segregation. Ultimately, the Atlanta and Nashville fairs were spaces in which southerners presented themselves as modern and imperial citizens ready to spread the South’s culture and racial politics across the globe.Less
A Dream of the Future examines how southerners at the end of the nineteenth century worked through the major questions facing a nation undergoing profound change. In an age of empire and industry, southerners grappled with what it meant to be modern. At Atlanta’s 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition and Nashville’s 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, white and black southerners endeavored to understand how their region could be industrial and imperial on its own terms. On a local, national, and global stage, African Americans, New South boosters, New Women, and Civil War veterans presented their own dreams of the future. White southerners at the fairs exhibited a way of life that embraced racial segregation and industrial capitalism, while African Americans accommodated, engaged, and contested this vision. The Atlanta and Nashville expositions are representative of a developing Jim Crow modernity through which white and black southerners constructed themselves as the objects and subjects of modernity during the formative years of segregation. Ultimately, the Atlanta and Nashville fairs were spaces in which southerners presented themselves as modern and imperial citizens ready to spread the South’s culture and racial politics across the globe.
