Ulrich Bonnell Phillips: A Southern Historian and His Critics

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

One of the most controversial historians of the American South, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, has been the object of intense scholarly interest for nearly seventy-five years. His contributions to our knowledge of the social and economic aspects of slavery--along with his well-known racial and class biases--have been discussed extensively. This anthology represents the best work on Phillips published between 1913 and 1986. The senior editor's introduction examines Phillips' role in the transition to the new social and economic approach that characterizes contemporary historiography. Twenty-six essays and excerpts by recognized authorities assess various aspects of Phillips's writings and career, including his background and training, regional and racial prejudices, methodology, and the historical genres in which he worked. A brief interpretive introduction prefaces each chapter. A chronological listing of the critical literature on Phillips completes the volume. Reflecting the vast scope of Phillips's contributions and his pervasive influence in the field, this collection is pertinent to studies in southern history, historiography, Afro-American history, and the history of race relations.

Reviews

. . . As a guide to the shifting winds of interpreation, North Carolina State University's John David Smith and John C. Inscoe of the University of Georgia have prepared this volume of essays and reviews. It contains twenty-six articles and excerpts from larger works, all published between 1913 and 1986, by authors who evaluated Phillip's career and contributions. The selections are well balanced between the affirmative and the negative positions in the continuing debate, and the editing is meticulous and unobtrusive. It is a useful, even provocative volume that makes available to the scholar a historical road map of the present state of Phillips and of the work he so effectively accomplished.-The North Carolina Historical Review
." . . As a guide to the shifting winds of interpreation, North Carolina State University's John David Smith and John C. Inscoe of the University of Georgia have prepared this volume of essays and reviews. It contains twenty-six articles and excerpts from larger works, all published between 1913 and 1986, by authors who evaluated Phillip's career and contributions. The selections are well balanced between the affirmative and the negative positions in the continuing debate, and the editing is meticulous and unobtrusive. It is a useful, even provocative volume that makes available to the scholar a historical road map of the present state of Phillips and of the work he so effectively accomplished."-The North Carolina Historical Review

Author Bio

JOHN DAVID SMITH is Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Window on the War (1976), Black Slavery in the Americas (Greenwood Press, 1982) An Old Creed for the New South (Greenwood Press, 1985) and The Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Greenwood Press, 1988). JOHN C. INSCOE is editor of the Georgia Historical Quarterly and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia. In 1988-89 he served as visiting editor of the Journal of Southern History and is the author of Mountain Masters, Slavery, and the Seasonal Crisis in Western North Carolina and numerous articles on slavery and race relations.