Reviews
"An excellent resource concerning the rural school building program financed by Julius Rosenwald between 1913 and 1932...Hoffschwelle's book provides a more in-depth look at the Rosenwald Fund than have previous studies."
--The Chronicles of Oklahoma
"A solid job… …a significant contribution to African-American, educational, and southern history."
--Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"An excellent book…a fascinating story."
--Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
"The detail of the discussion, the reliance on considerable primary evidence, and the overall contribution ot the understanding of the development of southern education make this a valuable addition to the historical literature on the South…Highly recommended."
--Choice
"Hoffschwelle assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the program and its larger significance for the status of African Americans and southern race relations in the early twentieth century."
--American Historical Review
"Unravels the philanthropic, architectural, and bureaucratic strands that make up the complicated fabric of the Rosenwald school-building program. . . . a fascinating study."
--Florida Historical Quarterly
"Successfully depicts the schools as integral to the African American communities they served in that the schools and what they represented—black agency in providing education for the community—were focal points of African American southern identity and local pride."
--Journal of American Ethnic History
"The layers of this book are tied together by the extraordinary detail of the archival research. . . . [A] tribute to the multi-layered institution of the Rosenwald schools."
--The Southern Quarterly
"A welcome addition not only to the study of architectural history in the South but also to the topic of American school architecture."
--Journal of the SE Chapter of the Society of Archaeological Historians
"The definitive history of the Rosenwald school-building program."
--The South Carolinia Historical Magazine
"Thorough and thoughtful."
--The North Carolina Historical Review
"Explores the material and cultural impact of the schools on southern African American and white communities in order to explore the meanings of identity and activism."
--Journal of Southern History
"[A] compelling narrative, a breadth of scope, and a sophistication of interpretation that make this a must-read for anyone interested in American cultural history."
--Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture
"Those interested in an administrative history of the Rosenwald Fund--an important foundation in the history of black education in the South--will find merit in this book."
--Louisiana History
“Considers the monumental influence of Rosenwald schools… [which] contributed greatly to the formation of public schooling in in general in the early twentieth-century South… meticulously researched and well-written.”
--Southwestern Historical Quarterly
“Meticulous research combined with insightful analysis and excellent prose… a sophisticated analysis of the interaction of the Rosenwald Fund with southern state officials, local governments, and rural black communities that gives us new insights into the Jim Crow society of the South during the first third of the twentieth century.”
--History: Reviews of New Books