{"product_id":"the-whole-machinery-the-rural-modern-in-cultures-of-the-us-south-1890-1946-9780820367088","title":"The Whole Machinery: The Rural Modern in Cultures of the U.S. South, 1890-1946","description":"\u003cp\u003eA familiar story holds that modernization radiates outward from metropolitan origins. Expanding on Walter Benjamin's notion of \u003ci\u003edie Moderne\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Whole Machinery \u003c\/i\u003eexplores representations of people and places, objects and occasions, that reverse that trajectory, demonstrating how modernizing agents move in a contrary direction as well--from the country to the city. In a crucial reconsideration, these figures aren't pulled by or into urban modernity so much as they bring alternate--and transformative--iterations of the modern to the urban world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUpending the U.S. South's reputation as either retrograde or unresponsive to modernity, Benjamin S. Child shows how the effects of national and transnational exchange, emergent technologies, and industrialization animate environments and bodies associated with, or performing, versions of the rural. To this end, he also exposes the shadow side of the cosmopolitan modern by investigating the rural sources--the laboring bodies and raw materials--that made such urban spaces possible, thus taking a broader survey of landscapes created by the Atlantic world's histories of uneven development. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this investigation of the rural modern that considers multiple media and forms of technology, Child's sources range widely, encompassing a spectrum of texts and their networks of transmission, reception, and signification. These include novels, poems, and short stories but also radio broadcasts, sound recordings, political pamphlets, photographs, magazine articles, newspaper reports, and agricultural bulletins. Folding such expressive artifacts into his larger arguments, Child considers how they both reflect and form modern(ist) culture. The result is a geography of southern modernism that includes an unexpected combination of landmarks, both actual and imagined: Twisted Oak, Arkansas, and Tukabahchee County, Alabama; Manhattan, Manchester, and Moscow; Tuskegee and Gobbler's Knob, North Carolina.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Benjamin S. Child\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e New Southern Studies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 298\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.97lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.67d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820367088","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45246670766217,"sku":"9780820367088","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_7816d46b-0020-42a8-b10b-8e5a6ab12192.jpg?v=1770701688","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-whole-machinery-the-rural-modern-in-cultures-of-the-us-south-1890-1946-9780820367088","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}