Landers University's Lucas McMillan (left) and historian Jill Cooley took part in a symposium on the South and World War I.

World War I was a boon to American South

By Aleks Gilbert
via the Index-Journal newspaper (Greenwood, SC) web site

“Wars bring terrible death, terrible destruction,” historian Courtney Tollison said Friday at Lander University. “Wars can also be incredibly beneficial for the economy.”

World War I was just that for the South.

Clothing, food, tobacco — European and American soldiers would need a massive amount of these goods, and the South was well positioned to provide them.

“This (WWI) is a real godsend, if you ask me, for the agricultural sector in the South,” said Ryan Floyd, Lander history professor. “It was a really wonderful time for them.”

Floyd, Tollison and two other historians began the second day of Lander’s symposium on the South and World War I with a pair of forums concerning wartime agriculture and economics.

Lucas McMillan, who moderated the panel on agriculture, said the two subjects could not be separated from one another in a region that defines itself with the production of cash crops.

“This structured the economy. This structured social life. This structured what we ate,” said McMillan, the dean of Lander’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. “Agriculture is in the heart of understanding Southern studies.”

Read the entire article on the Index-Journal web site.

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