Modern Cronies : Southern Industrialism from Gold Rush to Convict Labor, 1829-1894.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wheeler, Kenneth H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Industrialization.

Industrialists.

Gold mines and mining.

Economic history.

Gold mines and mining--Southern States--History--19th century.

Industrialists--Southern States--History--19th century.

Industrialization--Southern States--History--19th century.

Southern States.

Southern States--Economic conditions--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (196 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Modern Cronies

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, 2021.

Summary:

"This book traces how various industrialists, thrown together by the effects of the Southern gold rush, shaped the development of the southeastern United States. Existing historical scholarship treats the gold rush as self-contained, in which aside from Cherokee Removal (admittedly no small thing) and a supply of miners to California in 1849, the gold rush had no other effects. In fact, the Southern gold rush was a significant force. The pressure brought by the gold rush for Cherokee Removal opened the path of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, which created both Atlanta and Chattanooga. Iron makers, attracted by the gold rush, built the most elaborate iron-making operations in the Deep South near this railroad, in Georgia's Etowah Valley; some of these iron makers became the industrial talent in the fledgling post-bellum city of Birmingham, Alabama. This book explicates the networks of associations and interconnections across these varied industries in a way that newly interprets the development of the southeastern United States. The book also reconsiders the meaning of Joseph E. Brown, Georgia's influential Civil War governor, political heavyweight, and wealthy industrialist. Brown was nurtured in the Etowah Valley by people who celebrated mining, industrialization, banking, land speculation, and railroading as a pathway to a prosperous future. The book explains Brown's familial, religious, and social ties to these people, clarifies the origins of Brown's interest in convict labor, explains how he used his knowledge acquired in the gold rush to enrich himself as he marketed the Canton Copper Mine, and how after the Civil War Brown, aided by his sons, dominated and modeled an enriching crony capitalism with far-reaching implications"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Ararat

A Railroad and Rowland Springs

Iron

The Education of Joseph E. Brown

The Republic of Georgia

Destruction

Anew.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780820357515

0820357510

OCLC:

1249497278