Date of Award
12-2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
History
Committee Chair/Advisor
Grant, Roger
Committee Member
Mack , Pamela
Committee Member
Anderson , Paul C
Abstract
This thesis explores the relationship between the rhetoric of Southern reformers and the technology being adopted across South Carolina and Georgia at the end of the 19th century. The ideology of the New South, one that juxtaposed modern industry and old traditions, was fundamentally shortsighted in its failure to recognize how new technology would alter Southern institutions. Electric lights and power were widely viewed as neutral tools the South could employ to compete with Northern critics and achieve widespread hopes for modern prosperity. Because of this understanding of technology, one that is epitomized in the fanfare and optimism of the Chicago and Atlanta world's fairs, Southern reformers were sanguine about employing electricity in mills and towns throughout the South without consideration for the cultural costs. By examining the language of the participants (New South boosters and industrialists) we might understand how and why, in a region and period painted as being acutely concerned with preserving cultural institutions, the changes in Southern life that technology would bring went largely unanticipated. To accomplish this, this study focuses primarily on the technological developments associated with the textile industry in the South Carolina upstate.
Recommended Citation
Henderson, Matthew, "Reflections on Electricity, Modernization, & Identity in the New South" (2011). All Theses. 1220.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/1220