-----Original Message-----
From: H-South Review Editor Ian Binnington [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 May, 2002 7:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: H-South Review: Kimball Responds to Murray's Review


Gregg Kimball's response to H-South review of _American City, Southern
Place_

I would like to thank Professor Gail S. Murray for her review of _American
City, Southern Place_.  Because she has very ably laid out the content and
main arguments of my book, I will limit myself to a brief musing on the
theoretical and practical approaches that I pursued in the work.  Most of
these approaches are grounded in my work in public history -- Dr. Murray's
analogy of the museum exhibition is quite apt.  In fact, I would like to
use my space here to advocate a closer link between so-called "academic"
and "public" history, because my book is largely a product of that
collaboration.

I began work on _American City, Southern Place_ after many years of
research for public history projects at the Valentine Museum (now
appropriately renamed The Valentine/Richmond History Center) and the
Library of Virginia.  This work, ranging from the 1988 exhibition and
catalog _In Bondage and Freedom: Antebellum Black Life in Richmond,
Virginia_ (in collaboration with Marie Tyler-McGraw) to the restoration of
the Tredegar Iron Works, exposed me to the rich archival and community
resources that ultimately flowed into _American City, Southern
Place_.  This sustained involvement with the city's history over many years
provided a depth of understanding of community and historical resources
that would have been difficult to attain at a distance or over a shorter
period of time.  I include in that experience my dialogue with current
community members, which was, and still is, of great benefit to my
work.  (In fact, I am writing these comments a day after visiting the
history room, attending services, and delivering a talk at First African
Baptist Church.)

Dr. Murray highlights my development of the multiple perspectives of
Richmond's diverse populations, and this was indeed one of my goals.  The
sheer complexity of the overlapping worlds and worldviews that make up a
city or any other cultural crossroads are daunting, and I cannot claim to
have exhausted the possibilities for Richmond.  I was able to mine great
collections: the Tredegar records, the First African Baptist Church
minutes, the papers of the Valentine family, and many other remarkable
sources. Again, my long string of research projects and community-based
activities aided the work.

Dr. Murray appropriately opens her review with the central contention of
the book.  Richmond's extensive economic and cultural ties to northern
cities made it seem like a "Yankee town" to some visitors and residents,
while at the same time the city maintained strong connections to a very
Virginian, and indeed Southern, hinterland and history.  This was the
inspiration for a study that would look at Richmond as a node on a variety
of larger cultural networks.  This might seem obvious -- after all, what
are cities if not connecting points for systems of transportation, people,
ideas -- but many urban histories don't employ this perspective.  Most look
at cities from the "outside-in," examining the internal workings and
dynamics of a particular place.  I hoped to wed this internal history with
the "inside-out" perspective: how the city's exterior connections
influenced perceptions and ideas.

The development of my ideas along these lines was greatly influenced by a
particularly effective in-house program of seminars, fellowships, and
lectures that the Valentine established during my time there.  Through this
program I had a chance to read the works of, and interact with, scholars
such as David Goldfield, Jim Horton, Elsa Barkley Brown, and many
others.  I also returned to graduate school in 1991 at the University of
Virginia while still working at the Valentine.  There I was able to develop
further a theoretical framework within which to contextualize my
work.  Especially helpful was my advisor's (Edward Ayers) own interest in a
more "open-ended" history that could cut across regions, ethnicities, and
other boundaries that are givens in much of the historical literature.

Naturally, I am delighted that Dr. Murray found _American City, Southern
Place_ a "deeply researched, carefully argued, and gracefully written study
of the multiple voices and intertwined cultures" with larger implications
for antebellum history.  If so, it is in no small part due to the
privileged position I have occupied between a remarkable historical and
living community and vital scholarly networks.

Gregg D. Kimball
Assistant Director of Publications
Library of Virginia
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