Complex Cloth is a research and teaching project that explores local Athens’ manufacturing and social work histories–and investigates the connections between them. Resources for further exploration are included here.
Teaching Social Work’s Hard Histories
The following works may be useful to begin an exploration of social work’s hard histories:
Abramovitz, M., Toft, J., & Ginzky, K.E. (2022). Red scares, political repression and social work: Why now? [Annotated bibliography]. Social Welfare History Group: Bibliography of Scholarship in Social Welfare History (#102–1). https://www.southernct.edu/sites/default/files/a/sites/social-welfare-history-group/SWHG-Bibliography102v1-RedScare.pdf
Cariton-LaNey, I., & Hodges, V. (2004). African American reformers’ mission: Caring for our girls and women. Affilia: Journal of Women & Social Work, 19(3), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109904265853
Canadian Association of Social Workers (2019) Statement of Apology and Commitment to Reconciliation. CASW-ACTS. https://www.casw-acts.ca/files/Statement_of_Apology_and_Reconciliation.pdf
Chapman, C. & Withers, A. J. (2019). A violent history of benevolence : Interlocking oppression in the moral economies of social working. University of Toronto Press.
Ernst, J. S. (2022). Historical content in the social work curriculum: The value of local history. Social Work Education, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2022.2098944
Fortier, C., & Hon-Sing Wong, E. (2019). The settler colonialism of social work and the social work of settler colonialism. Settler Colonial Studies, 9(4), 437–456.
Harty, J. S. (2020). Black contributions to mutual aid, social welfare, and social work: Supplementary reading guide. https://www.prof2prof.com/resource/black-contributions-mutual-aid-social-welfare-and-social-work-history
Ioakimidis, V., & Trimikliniotis, N. (2020). Making sense of social work’s troubled past: Professional identity, collective memory and the quest for historical justice. British Journal of Social Work, 50(6), 1890–1908. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa040
McPherson, J. (2023). Social work’s complex cloth: Teaching hard history in an antebellum cotton mill. Critical and Radical Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1332/204986021X16731232086522
McRae, E. G. (2018). Mothers of massive resistance : White women and the politics of White supremacy. Oxford University Press.
Park, Y. (2008). Facilitating injustice: Tracing the role of social workers in the world war II internment of Japanese Americans. Social Service Review, 82(3), 447–483. https://doi.org/10.1086/592361.
Wenocur, S., & Reisch, M. (1989). From charity to enterprise : The development of American social work in a market economy. University of Illinois Press.
References and Reading on Athens, Georgia
Multiple scholars and chroniclers are cited over the breadth of this website and their works are listed below.
Buckingham, J. S. (1842). The slave states of America. Fisher, Son.
Carlisle, O. B. (2003) Robert Lee Bloomfield of Athens: 1827-1916. Athens Historian, Volume 8. Athens Historical Society.
Coulter, E. M. (1928). College life in the old South. The MacMillan Company.
De Vorsey, L. (1979). Early water-powered industries in Athens Clarke County. Papers of Athens Historical Society, Volume 2. Athens Historical Society.
Easom, M. P. & Arnold, P. H. (2019). Across the river: The peoples, places, and culture of East Athens. Sheridan Publishing.
Gagnon, M. J. (2000). Industry and discord in confederate Athens. Athens Historian, Volume 5. Athens Historical Society. https://athenshistorical.org/industry-and-discord-in-confederate-athens/
Gagnon, M. J. (2012). Transition to an industrial South: Athens, Georgia, 1830–1870. LSU Press.
Hull, A. L. (1906). Annals of Athens, Georgia, 1801-1901, with an introductory sketch by Dr. Henry Hull. Digital Library of Georgia. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/do-pdf:gb0145
Hull, A. L. (1894). A historical sketch of the University of Georgia. Digital Library of Georgia. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/do-pdf:gb0144
Reason, A. (2019). Heritage and hate: Teaching confederate monuments with archives. Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/24716839.2216
Tate, S.F.B. (1996). Remembering Athens. Athens Historical Society.
Thurmond, M. L. (2019). A story untold: Black men and women in Athens history (3rd ed.). Deeds Publishing.
Whitehead, H.T. (2021). Giving voice to Linnentown. Tiny Tots & Tikes Publishing.
