South in the Building of the Nation, The

In 1900 there was a general agreement among Southerners on the need for a comprehensive history of the Southern states. It had been and was a nation, sharing beliefs, traditions, and culture. This series, originally published in 1909, is a record of the South's part in the making of the American nation. It portrays the character, the genius, the achievements, and the progress in the life of the Southern people. This is a wide-ranging study of the intellectual life of the South involving oratory, poetry, folklore, and the inestimable wit of the Big Bear School. Founded by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet in Georgia, it spread to every part of the South and was the most vigorous and humorous of the nation. The South was active in the sciences. In medicine, the contributions were especially strong, with many firsts, including the discovery of anesthesia by Carford Long in Georgia and the pioneering vascular work of Dr. Rudolph Matas of New Orleans. From his work sprang Alton Ochsner and Michael Debakey, culminating in cardiac bypass and transplant surgery of the present day. The twenty-five chapters cover almost every aspect of intellectual endeavor, including mathematics, journalism, and the law.