Reviews
McKinley argues that despite considerable similarities between Old and New South, the negotiations that produced this resemblance reveal the agency of freedpeople as well as planters, the mingled self-interest and aspirations of politicians, and a new commercial and manufacturing class that relied on old networks and ways of doing business....A solid contribution.
--The Journal of American History
A very well-researched, contextual case study that makes a significant contribution to the story of industrialization in the New South.
--Choice
A valued addition to the history of the low-country and the post-slavery South more generally.
--EH.net
An insightful analysis of the rise of the phosphate and fertilizer industries in the South Carolina low country.
--Business History Review
McKinley’s fine monograph is a valued addition to the history of the low-county and the post-slavery South more generally.
--EH Net
Examines an often-overlooked aspect of southern industrialization and thus makes an important contribution to the history of the New South.
--North Carolina Historical Review
Offers an exciting invitation for more scholarship on a New South industry that has remained hidden from view.
--Journal of Southern History
Presents a narrative that stresses the importance of focusing on certain industries--for example, mining, phosphates, and fertilizers--that thrived during the postbellum era and have, for far too long, been relatively unexamined.
--The Historian
Equal parts history of science, business history, industrial history, labor history, and the history of race relations, all done as a case study geographically centered on Charleston, the Charleston Neck, and the Ashley River. McKinley’s research of these topics is thorough, and his analysis of that research is convincing.
--South Carolina Historical Magazine
Convincingly argues that the tripartite industry was more significant than historians have previously allowed. . . . A fascinating glimpse of a neglected industrial Charleston.
--Journal of Economic History
Combining business, economic, labor, local, political, and social history, McKinley posits that the fertilizer industry emancipated former planter elites from the slave-based antebellum economy. . . . [His] examination of a relatively obscure aspect of industrial and technological history suggests the existence of other nascent southern industries after the Civil War.
--American Historical Review