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Bezig met laden... James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery (1982)door Drew Gilpin Faust
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Unlike many books by academic historians, this is a very 'good read.' Faust traces Hammond's rise from very modest origins, and shows how his very calculated choice of a marriage partner opened the door to the wealth (denominated, of course, in land and slaves) that assured him the 'independence' that represented the republican ideal. Throughout his life, Hammond's drive for control and mastery was unrelenting, and it was always accompanied by a gnawing insecurity -- Faust underscores the toll that these took on his emotional life, and the sometimes hideous ways they manifested themselves. His was a life of massive contradictions -- he idealized a permanent, fixed, and stable patriarchal social order, but his own life personified the struggle for upward mobility. 2713 James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery, by Drew Gilpin Faust (read 1 Mar 1995) Hammond was born 15 Nov 1807 in Newberry District, S. C., was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina from Mar 4, 1835, to Feb 26, 1836, Governor of S. C. 1842-1844, and U.S. Senator from S. C. from Dec. 7, 1857, to Nov. 11, 1860, and died at his home, Radcliffe." Beach Island, S. C. on Nov 13, 1864. This book is not classified as a biography but it tells the story of his life and the life of a large slaveholder. He could not control himself--he had sex with two of his slaves, a mother and a daughter. He really was an unsuccessful politician, though he had a great ego. This book holds him up as a rich aristocrat--though he got his money by marriage to a girl of 15 he did not love. I was surprised at how much material exists on a man as minor a figure as he turned out to be. He was not very patriotic to the South after secession--he encouraged his brother to stay in the Union Army, and bitterly resented his property being confiscated for Confederate purposes during the war. This book had a lot of unusual stuff in it, and was worth reading. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Southern Biography Series (1982)
From his birth in 1807 to his death in 1864 as Sherman's troops marched in triumph toward South Carolina, James Henry Hammond witnessed the rise and fall of the cotton kingdom of the Old South. Planter, politician, and partisan of slavery, Hammond built a career for himself that in its breadth and ambition provides a composite portrait of the civilization in which he flourished. A long-awaited biography, Drew Gilpin Faust's James Henry Hammond and the Old South reveals the South Carolina planter who was at once characteristic of his age and unique among men of his time. Of humble origins, Hammond set out to conquer his society, to make himself a leader and a spokesman for the Old South. Through marriage he acquired a large plantation and many slaves, and then through shrewd management and progressive farming techniques he soon became one of the wealthiest men in South Carolina. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served as governor of his state. A scandal over his personal life forced him to retreat for many years to his plantation, but eventually he returned to public view, winning a seat in the United States Senate that he resigned when South Carolina seceded from the Union. James Henry Hammond's ambition was unquenchable. It consumed his life, directed almost his every move, and ultimately, in its titanic calculation and rigidity, destroyed the man confined within it. Like Faulkner's Thomas Sutpen, Faust suggests, Hammond had a "design," a compulsion to direct every moment of his life toward self-aggrandizement and legitimation. Hammond envisioned himself as the benevolent, paternal, but absolute master of his family and his slaves. But in reality, neither his family, his slaves, nor even his own behavior was completely under his command. Hammond ardently wished to perfect and preserve the southern way of life. But these goals were also beyond his control. At the time of his death it had become clear to him that his world, the world of the Old South, had ended. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)975.7History and Geography North America Southeastern U.S. South CarolinaLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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