| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.2

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| Review | Journal of Social History, 39.2 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

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 compelling argument that a distinct southern middle class developed long before the post-war era, as Woodward concluded, and that it influenced the region in profound ways. Grounded in such underutilized sources as credit reports, postmaster records, and numerous regional publications, Wells divides his study into three parts that examine the cultural ties between the North and the South, the formation of the southern middle class, and, finally, the role this class played during the secession crisis. While there is intriguing analysis throughout this sophisticated investigation, at times Wells overstates both the ideological coherence of this class and its influence, particularly in bringing about the Civil War.

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