Featuring contributions by leading scholars, this book goes beyond conventional archaeological studies by placing the description and interpretation of specific sites in the wider context of the landscape that connects them to one another.

Assessing a unique collection of more than eighty images, this innovative study of visual culture reveals the productive organization of plantation landscapes in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. These landscapes—from cotton fields in the Lower Mississippi Valley to sugar plantations in western Cuba and coffee plantations in Brazil's Paraiba Valley—demonstrate how the restructuring of the capitalist world economy led to the formation of new zones of commodity production. By extension, these environments radically transformed slave labor and the role such labor played in the expansion of the global economy. Artists and mapmakers documented in surprising detail how the physical organization of the landscape itself made possible the increased exploitation of enslaved labor. Reading these images today, one sees how technologies combined with evolving conceptions of plantation management that reduced enslaved workers to black bodies. Planter control of enslaved people's lives and labor maximized the production of each crop in a calculated system of production. Nature, too, was affected: the massive increase in the scale of production and new systems of cultivation increased the land's output. Responding to world economic conditions, the replication of slave-based commodity production became integral to the creation of mass markets for cotton, sugar, and coffee, which remain at the center of contemporary life.

The most visited site in the National Park system, the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway winds along the ridges of the Appalachian mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. According to most accounts, the Parkway was a New Deal "Godsend for the needy," built without conflict or opposition by landscape architects and planners who traced their vision along a scenic, isolated southern landscape. The historical archives relating to this massive public project, however, tell a different and much more complicated story, which Anne Mitchell Whisnant relates in this revealing history of the beloved roadway.

Vibrant high-tech centers, shifting barrier islands, okra festivals, Yankee and Latino immigrants, Blue Ridge vistas, world-class universities and empty textile mills-this is the Carolinas. A region of striking natural beauty, rich history, and a rapidly changing economic base, the Carolinas are "Old South" and "New South," intimately local and inextricably global. In A Geography of the Carolinas, eleven noted geographers explore the region's historical, cultural and physical landscapes. Bringing the perspective of the science of geography and a wealth of experience and knowledge, the contributors reveal the patterns, processes, and connections at work in these two great states. Each chapter is an exploration of this diverse terrain of places and peoples, and a fascinating journey for those who wish to understand the past, present, and future of the Carolinas. Book jacket.

What exactly is the "built world?" It has been described as the spaces people have made in which we "live, work, and recreate on a day-to- day basis." Surroundings created for humans, by humans, to be used for human activity. The built world ranges from structures to buildings to parks to entire communities.Imagine a group of settlers arriving in an undeveloped location. First come shelters in which to live and then structures in which to work and shop. There are buildings for worship and education. As the commu- nity grows government buildings are required. With prosperity comes spaces in which to spend leisure time. And there is infrastructure to tie it all together. Over time comes a built world. And the building choices North Carolinians have made through the generations are what makes the Old North State one-of-a-kind, unique from every other built world.This book looks at the stories of more than 120 of the most famous pieces of the built world that have shaped North Carolina from her be- ginnings. Places and spaces could be famous for their architecture or distinguished by the people associated with them. Some stand out for their engineering. Others are famous just for being famous. All have contributed to the tapestry of the modern North Carolina built world.Almost all of the selections within are open to the public, or at least visible from public spaces. So, if you haven't seen these landmarks in person, fire up your GPS and get out and explore your historic built world, North Carolina!

Central North Carolina boasts a rich and varied architectural landscape. This richly illustrated guide offers a fascinating look at the Piedmont's historic architecture, covering more than 2,000 sites in 34 counties. 535 illustrations.