Overview

Becoming Bourgeois is the first study to focus on what historians have come to call the ""middling sort,"" the economic group falling between yeoman farmers and the planter class that dominated the antebellum South. At a time when Southerners rarely traveled far from their homes, these merchants annually ventured forth on buying junkets to northern cities. The southern merchant community promoted the kind of aggressive business practices that proponents of the ""New South"" would later claim as their own. Frank J. Byrne reveals the peculiar strains of modern liberal-capitalist and conservative thought that permeated the culture of southern merchants. By exploring the values men and women in merchant families espoused, Byrne not only offers new insight into southern history but also deepens our understanding of the mutable ties between regional identity and the marketplace in nineteenth-century America.

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9780813192710

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Reviews

Frank J. Byrne's ground-breaking study of merchants in the antebellum South rests on a question of such good sense one can only marvel why it has not been asked before...A book that shows the complexity of the social structure of the South and of its individuals, particularly one that combines a study of political economy and culture, is a most welcome addition. -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly Becoming Bourgeois is a valuable addition to a new and growing body of scholarship on the Old South's middle class that has modified the traditional view of Southern free society. -- Louisiana History Frank J. Byrne's study is a welcome exploration of the nation's merchant class, which was crucial to the success of the dominant and more extensively researched planter class... His depiction of the southern merchant class is suggestive and illuminating. -- Journal of East Tennessee History Byrne... breathes new life into the slim and aging historiography of merchants in the antebellum South. -- Civil War Book Review This excellent study sheds light on a commonly overlooked class of white southerners and provides another example of the ways in which historians continue to highlight the diversity of the 'Old South.' -- West Virginia History In Becoming Bourgeois, Frank Byrne presents a long overdue re-examination of the antebellum merchant in the South. Rich in details gleaned from an impressive assortment of primary and secondary resources, Byrne's portrait of southern merchants is both familiar and novel. -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society Byrne's book is a worthwhile study combining facets of antebellum southern, class, gender, and history into an accessible whole. -- American Historical Review In sum, Byrne has given us a fine book that should further stimulate a recently initiated rethinking of the impact of merchants on nineteenth-century southern society. -- Journal of American History Building upon recent work on the middle class and master class, historian Frank Byrne has added yet another dimension to scholarly understanding of the ways in which social structure and culture intertwine.... Byrne has provided us with an insightful analysis of a segment of the Southern population. -- Jonathan Daniel Wells, Johnson & Wales University Becoming Bourgeois is a welcome addition to the growing literature on commercial activity and class development in the South, and the presentation makes the book a pleasure to read. Byrne effectively combines his analysis with examples...to help the reader understand antebellum merchant culture and its broader significance. -- North Carolina Historical Review Becoming Bourgeois adds significantly to our understanding of social class in the Antebellum and Civil War South. Byrne's book reveals a great tension between the role of merchants as economic linchpins in the South and the cultural role they constructed for themselves to ensure their inclusion in southern society. -- Michele Gillespie, author of Free Labor in an Unfree World Byrne suggests that even though the planter class dominated every aspect of the region, a rising merchant middle class with economic ties outside the South was scattered throughout Dixie...He offers an interesting, well-researched thesis. Recommended. -- Choice Byrne... sympathetically depict[s] the textures of everyday life as experienced by antebellum southern merchants and their families. -- Journal of Southern History

Frank J. Byrne's ground-breaking study of merchants in the antebellum South rests on a question of such good sense one can only marvel why it has not been asked before...A book that shows the complexity of the social structure of the South and of its individuals, particularly one that combines a study of political economy and culture, is a most welcome addition. --Arkansas Historical Quarterly -- Becoming Bourgeois is a valuable addition to a new and growing body of scholarship on the Old South's middle class that has modified the traditional view of Southern free society. --Paul F. Paskoff, Louisiana History -- Frank J. Byrne's study is a welcome exploration of the nation's merchant class, which was crucial to the success of the dominant and more extensively researched planter class... His depiction of the southern merchant class is suggestive and illuminating. --Journal of East Tennessee History -- Byrne... breathes new life into the slim and aging historiography of merchants in the antebellum South. --Civil War Book Review -- This excellent study sheds light on a commonly overlooked class of white southerners and provides another example of the ways in which historians continue to highlight the diversity of the 'Old South.' --West Virginia History -- Byrne... sympathetically depict[s] the textures of everyday life as experienced by antebellum southern merchants and their families. --Journal of Southern History -- In Becoming Bourgeois, Frank Byrne presents a long overdue re-examination of the antebellum merchant in the South. Rich in details gleaned from an impressive assortment of primary and secondary resources, Byrne's portrait of southern merchants is both familiar and novel. --Tom Downey, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society -- Byrne's book is a worthwhile study combining facets of antebellum southern, class, gender, and history into an accessible whole. --Beth English, American Historical Review -- In sum, Byrnes has given us a fine book that should further stimulate a recently initiated rethinking of the impact of merchants on nineteenth-century southern society. --The Journal of American History -- Building upon recent work on the middle class and master class, historian Frank Byrne has added yet another dimension to scholarly understanding of the ways in which social structure and culture intertwine.... Byrne has provided us with an insightful analysis of a segment of the Southern population. --Jonathan Daniel Wells, Johnson & Wales University -- Becoming Bourgeois is a welcome addition to the growing literature on commercial activity and class development in the South, and the presentation makes the book a pleasure to read. Byrne effectively combines his analysis with examples...to help the reader understand antebellum merchant culture and its broader significance. --North Carolina Historical Review -- Becoming Bourgeois adds significantly to our understanding of social class in the Antebellum and Civil War South. Byrne's book reveals a great tension between the role of merchants as economic linchpins in the South and the cultural role they constructed for themselves to ensure their inclusion in southern society. --Michele Gillespie, author of Free Labor in an Unfree World -- Byrne suggests that even though the planter class dominated every aspect of the region, a rising merchant middle class with economic ties outside the South was scattered throughout Dixie...He offers an interesting, well-researched thesis. Recommended. --Choice --

Becoming Bourgeois is a valuable addition to a new and growing body of scholarship on the Old South's middle class that has modified the traditional view of Southern free society. -- Paul F. Paskoff Louisiana History

Author Information

Frank J. Byrne is associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Oswego.

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