The Sweetness of Life
Southern Planters at Home
Eugene D Genovese author Douglas Ambrose editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Published:5th Oct '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£75.00(9781107138056)
This book offers an in-depth look at the lives of antebellum slaveholders, exploring their leisure activities and domestic experiences. The Sweetness of Life reveals the complexities of their existence.
In The Sweetness of Life, Eugene Genovese delves into the intricate lives of American slaveholders, revealing how the wealth generated by slave labor allowed them to cultivate a lifestyle marked by gentility and refinement. This study paints a vivid picture of slaveholders both at home and engaged in leisure activities, illustrating a world that was tragically intertwined with both 'sweetness' and slavery. The narrative highlights the paradox of their existence, where comfort and luxury coexisted with the harsh realities of human bondage.
The book provides a thorough examination of the domestic sphere of planters in the antebellum South, drawing from years of research by Genovese, who passed away in 2012. With insights from Douglas Ambrose in the introduction and epilogue, The Sweetness of Life offers a penetrating look at the daily lives of slaveholders and their families. From attending the theatre to hosting lavish parties, from hunting and gambling to enjoying vacations at spas, the book captures the essence of their leisure pursuits while addressing the underlying societal structures that made such a lifestyle possible.
Genovese skillfully intertwines discussions of politics, economics, and religion to illuminate how these factors shaped the leisure activities of the slaveholding class. By focusing on this often-overlooked aspect of planter life, The Sweetness of Life broadens our understanding of the complex world created by slaveholders and their slaves, revealing a tragic yet fascinating narrative that challenges conventional historical perspectives.
'In crafting The Sweetness of Life, the late Eugene D. Genovese drew upon a long, illustrious career of research into the lives of white and black southerners. Agree with his conclusions or not, no historian played a larger role in recovering the complicated, turbulent world of antebellum cotton slavery. Gracefully edited by Douglas Ambrose, this brilliant and insightful study serves as a capstone to Genovese's fifty years of distinguished scholarship. A masterful achievement.' Douglas R. Egerton, Le Moyne College
'Sparkling with insight and humanity, Eugene D. Genovese again delivers, this time posthumously. This book continues his examination of the slaveholder class, describing in detail the essential ways in which it created its own definition of hospitality, of manners, of leisure, and more as it rushed toward civil war. As usual for Genovese over a career of fifty years his writing is engaging and crystal clear, and the scholarship rich. The academy owes Genovese's devoted student, Douglas Ambrose, a debt of gratitude for shepherding this sweet, final bit of Genovese's oeuvre to publication. It is well worth the read.' Orville Vernon Burton, Clemson University, and author of The Age of Lincoln
'In this subtly provocative work, Genovese pulls back the curtain on the lives of leisure planters made on the backs of black labor. A fitting coda to a corpus of immeasurable impact, The Sweetness of Life offers crucial insight into the mind of the Old South's master class.' Kathleen Hilliard, Iowa State University
ISBN: 9781316502891
Dimensions: 228mm x 151mm x 18mm
Weight: 460g
308 pages