History Faculty Publications

Title

Review: 'Cinderella of the New South: A History of the Cottonseed Industry, 1855-1955'

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

6-1996

Publication Source

Journal of American History

Abstract

According to the author, this work is about an industry that made "something from nothing," and I suppose a cynical reviewer could presuppose that this book, in terms of historical and scholarly relevance, does the same. After all, who should care about a business that was ancillary to the "king" of the southern economy, and assuming that it had some importance for a time, was ephemeral in economic significance, to say the least?

But if we carefully examine the production and market statistics presented in Lynette Boney Wrenn's Cinderella of the New South and adhere to the notion that knowledge is complex, seamless in nature, and interrelated, one cannot but come to the conclusion that this work marks a substantial advance in our understanding of the evolution of the New South. Indeed, given the well-worn historiographical paths that exist concerning the American South, the question should be, Why did it take so long for this work to appear?

Inclusive pages

215

ISBN/ISSN

0021-8723

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Book's citation information: Wrenn, Lynette Boney. Cinderella of the New South: A History of the Cottonseed Industry, 1855-1955. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Volume

83

Issue

1

Peer Reviewed

yes


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