Athens of the New South: College Life and the Making of Modern Nashville

In 2013, the New York Times identified Nashville as America's "it" city-a leading hub of music, culture, technology, food, and business. But long before, the Tennessee capital was known as the "Athens of the South," as a reflection of the city's reputation for investment in its institutions of higher education, which especially blossomed after the end of the Civil War and through the New South Era from 1865 to 1930. This wide-ranging book chronicles the founding and growth of Nashville's institutions of higher education and their impressive impact on the city, region, and nation at large. By the turn of the twentieth century, Vanderbilt University had become one of the country's premier private schools, while nearby Peabody College was a leading teacher-training institution. Nashville also became known as a center for the education of African Americans. Fisk University joined the ranks of the nation's most prestigious black liberal-arts universities, while Meharry Medical College emerged as one of the country's few training centers for African American medical professionals. Following the agricultural-industrial model, Tennessee A&I became the state's first black public college. In sum, Nashville was distinguished not only by the quantity of its schools but by their quality. Mary Ellen Pethel also explores their impact in shaping Nashville's expansion, on changing gender roles, and on leisure activity in the city, which included the rise and popularity of collegiate sports. In her conclusion, she shows that Nashville's present-day reputation as a dynamic place to live, learn, and work is due in no small part to the role that higher education continues to play in the city's growth and development. Mary Ellen Pethel is the archivist and a member of the Social Science Department at Harpeth Hall School in Nashville. At Belmont University, Dr. Pethel is a Global Leadership Studies Fellow and teaches in the Honors Department