Sorting Out the New South City, Second Edition: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875–1975

If you live in Charlotte, North Carolina, you know some of this story, but not all. This book should be required reading for everyone living in this Capital of The New South and others who want a peek under the tent of our greatness. I recommend it.

Whether you are a long time Charlotte resident, moving to Charlotte or simply interested in the New South journey from rural cross roads to fast growing, banking and tech hub of the South - this is the book you must read.Diversity and inclusion is a hot phrase now, yet Charlotte has had a unique journey that is told in an approachable, clear and honest manner in this volume.Dr Hanchett offers a well researched and thoughtful look for those that love history and seek an understanding of how the past and support smart growth in the future.I often buy this book for friends, as a thoughtful way to show my appreciation fir what they add to our community. 💕

This is an amazing story of the rise of Charlotte, North Carolina.

I lived in Charlotte in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the city had an enormous inferiority complex with more cosmopolitan, liberal and sophisticated Atlanta. I always thought Charlotte was a lovely small city, but I found it to be intensely conservative and insular. I lived in Myers Park, one of the relatively wealthy enclaves, and absolutely NEVER ventured into the northern or western parts of the city. This book explains how those tendencies came to be. It's not by chance.This book is actually a good history of Charlotte, but it really concentrates on city planning from immediately after the Civil War until the city cemented itself as the major financial center of the South. The sharp segregation you see in Charlotte, even to this day, is a result of deliberate city planning which took place AFTER the Civil War. The reason Charlotte feels so insular is because it IS insular, by design. Myers Park people stay in Myers Park. Dilworth people stay in Dilworth. Quail Hollow people stay in... you get the idea. There's really no reason for cross migration or intermingling. Where you lived and where you went to church established you in the social hierarchy, that was very much by design. This book describes how that came to be, and it was an intentional process that occurred over 100 years, after the War. The same scenario played out over many Southern cities after the War.Charlotte was not really given the chance to grow organically (as it had before the Civil War) since its segregation was masterplanned (after the Civil War). The city has been so consumed with becoming BIG - BIG banks, BIG buildings, BIG churches, BIG sports, BIG roads, BIG airport - that it hasn't really dedicated resources to addressing the issue of its insular and conservative nature. The people in positions of power are happy to maintain this social structure. Charlotte is happy to maintain its "uptown", thank you very much.If you want to understand Charlotte today, this is an excellent book. I was struck with how well it explained the things about Charlotte I always felt but could never quite express.