Gwinnett County, Georgia, and the Transformation of the American South, 1818–2018

by Matthew Hild (Editor), Michael Gagnon (Editor), Julia Brock (Contributor)

In Gwinnett County’s two hundred years, the area has been western, southern, rural, suburban, and now increasingly urban. Its stories include the displacement of Native peoples, white settlement, legal battles over Indian Removal, slavery and cotton, the Civil War and the Lost Cause, New South railroad and town development, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, business development and finance in a national economy, a Populist uprising and Black outmigration, the entrance of women into the political arena, the evolution of cotton culture, the development of modern infrastructure, and the transformation from rural to suburban to a multicultural urbanizing place. Gwinnett, as its chamber of commerce likes to say, has it all.

However, Gwinnett has yet to be the focus of a major historical exploration―until now. Through a compilation of essays written by professional historians with expertise in a diverse array of eras and fields, Michael Gagnon and Matthew Hild’s collection finally tells these stories in a systematic way―avoiding the pitfalls of nonprofessional local histories that tend to ignore issues of race, class, or gender. While not claiming to be comprehensive, this book provides general readers and scholars alike with a glimpse at Gwinnett through the ages.

268 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2022

Reviews

[Brandee · Rating 3 out of 5]

While interesting and thought provoking, this book left me with more questions than anything. The afterward gives a good description that this is a collection of microhistories with each chapter being more of an article written by a different author. Because of this there are some points throughout the book that seem to contradict earlier chapters or skip ahead in time, without discussing how those changes occured. I initially was expecting more of an in-depth historical account of the county, which maybe contributing to some of my mixed feelings about the book. I wish they had included maps, especially in the earlier chapters where towns and boundaries didn't exist or have since changed.

I thought the book did do a good job of showing the county's identity struggle between being rural or urban. It was interesting to see some of the arguments and attitudes have not changed since the 1960s and yet the county has changed quite a bit.

Some of the chapters talk about the preservation of historical buildings like the Elisha Winn and Issac Adair homes (there is no explanation as to who Issac Adair was or why the house had previously been called the John Craig house or who he was either). They briefly mentioned the "Nations Walk" for the Cherokee mounds, and the hope to preserve several other buildings, but it is unclear what happened to them after the lawsuits were filed beyond the Elisha Winn house was not bulldozed and the developer paid for the utilities of that area.

The chapters also discuss that the homes were preserved presenting a flawed history embracing the "Lost Cause" narratives without detailing what they present, but the accurate or factual history wasn't presented nor does it reference where to find it. The discussion of the Chief Vann house gave examples of high end, modern furnishings were mixed with Cherokee artifacts, so possibly something similar? It is also unclear for both the Chief Vann house and Gwinnett houses, whether it was only originally flawed during the initial preservation in the '70s/'80s or if it has been amended since. It also brings into question the information the county and historical society has posted in the other parks and historic sites around the county. Is it all flawed or biased?

It was interesting to read about the development vs preservation struggles and about the Promised Land settlement with the recent articles of controversy between the county and the Livsey family and the Maguire-Livsey house.