Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792-1852

Winner of the Clay Lancaster Heritage Education Award given by the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation --

This excellent collectiotn of essays seeks to address an important, but understudied, time priod in Kentucky history during which Lexington and its surrounding areas were at their zenith both culturally and economically. This is a highly readable volume that should appeal to any person interested in the state's history, that should become the standard 'go-to' text on this era in Kentucky for many years to come. --Anne Marshall, author of Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State --

The essays well testify to the breadth and high quality of work being undertaken on early Kentucky. -- Matthew G. Schoenbachler, author of Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy

These excellent essays now comprise the most comprehensive view of Lexington's golden age in all its many facets while extorting the individuals who molded it into something great. In the end one understands why Lexington had a Latrobe house -- the most sophisticated house designed in federal America -- for it symbolized an earned preeminence. In time its preeminence faded but in these essays Lexington continues to teach us by revealing its strengths and weaknesses its success and failures which speak to our own. -- John E. Kleber, editor of The Kentucky Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Louisville

Recipient of Clay Lancaster Herritage Education Award for their service in researching and disseminating information about Central Kentucky. -- Lexington Herald-Leader

Taken as a whole, the collection is a treasure trove of references for the student of Kentucky history, and it introduces new fields of research and reflection. It is a great addition to the historiography and a welcome complement to earlier edited collections published by the University Press of Kentucky. -- Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

[...] The well-crafted and well-researched essays illuminate the unique culture that flourished in the Central Bluegrass region during the antebellum era. Individuals who research and teach Kentucky history in the state's universities and public schools will find in these chapters a wealth of information and insight to share with their classes. Bluegrass Renaissance is an exemplary book, a credit to its publisher. The essays within its covers add to our understanding of the antebellum cultural milieu that made the Bluegrass frontier an exciting and unique region. -- Indiana Magazine of History

Daniel Rowland is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky and has published numerous articles on art, architecture, and political culture in early modern Russia as well as contributing to the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.