| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 210 words from this article are provided below; about 405 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Planting a Capitalist South: Masters, Merchants, and Manufacturers in the Southern Interior, 1790–1860. By Tom Downey. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. xvi, 262 pp. $49.95, ISBN 0-8071-3107-5.)

Debate over the nature of the antebellum southern economy—whether it was capitalist or precapitalist or something else again—has raged among historians of the South for many years. Indeed, some wearied scholars have wished the question a quiet and timely death, but it refuses to go away—in large part because it continues to generate new insights into the nature of antebellum southern life and society. Into the fray steps Tom Downey, whose new book, Planting a Capitalist South, attempts to circumvent the central question by borrowing from historians of the Northeast the notion of a "transition to capitalism" (p. 3). Downey argues that by the 1840s the region—or more specifically (and surprisingly) the Edgefield and Barnwell districts in South Carolina— was, like the antebellum Northeast, in the midst of a capitalist transition, but one that moved more slowly and was far less complete by the Civil War. Only by recognizing such a transition, Downey argues, can historians account for both the region's attachment to an agrarian and presumably precapitalist economy, and its expanding commercial and industrial sector.

. . .

There are about 405 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.