Document Type
Review
Publication Date
12-2009
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Department 2
History
Abstract
In a 1975 article on the place of yeomen farmers in a slave society, Eugene D. Genovese identified a critical question concerning the nature of the Old South. The issue, he wrote, is to explain “the degree of class collaboration and social unity” that existed among all whites, which to Genovese appeared “all the more impressive in the face of so many internal strains.” Although some critics mistakenly charged that Genovese argued for non-slaveholder passivity in the face of planter hegemony, he was, in actuality, acknowledging that class relations were permeated with tension and discord, causing bitter resentments that occasionally flared into conflict among white folks. Yet Genovese never found evidence of a populist insurgency against slaveholder authority, a struggle in which the very basis of power was contested. He suggested— what scholars such as Steven Hahn, Lacy Ford, and Stephanie McCurry have more recently developed with amazing sophistication—that an intricate web of political, economic, and cultural relations bound whites together through shared material and ideological interests imbedded in human bondage. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1353/rah.0.0155
Recommended Citation
Carmichael, Peter S. "Into the Murky World of Class Consciousness." Reviews in American History 37.4 (December 2009), 553-560.
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher through Project MUSE at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/reviews_in_american_history/