?Not just another variation on a familiar theme, Toward a New South? takes a fresh look at post-Civil War life in selected southern communities. While the dozen contributors rely heavily on the methodology of the new social history to explore questions of race and class, the best of these pieces successfully integrate both quantitative and qualitative sources to provide new insights into these historical problems. ... Overall, editors McMath and Burton have put together a collection of essays which ... represent a significant contribution to the historiography of the New South.?-The Journal of Southwest Georgia History