Description: Far from being a record of southern failure, Lakwete concludes, the cotton gin--correctly understood--supplies evidence that the slave labor-based antebellum South innovated, industrialized, and modernized.
Brief description: Angela Lakwete is an associate professor of history at Auburn University.
Review Quotes: With careful use of vivid illustrations and keen analytic skills, Lakwete captures the relationship between technology and human initiative.
--Lester P. Lee, Jr., Times Literary Supplement