Holland Thompson

Born in Randolph County, North Carolina, in 1873, Holland Thompson studied at the University of North Carolina and later earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Before becoming a college professor, he worked as a high school principal in Concord, where his close view of a fast-changing Southern economy helped shape the subjects he would write about for years.

Thompson became a professor of history at the City College of New York and built his reputation as an interpreter of the New South. His best-known works include From the Cotton Field to the Cotton Mill and The New South: A Chronicle of Social and Industrial Evolution, books that explored the shift from rural agriculture to manufacturing and modern industry.

He died in New York City in 1940. Though not widely read today, his work remains useful for listeners interested in how Southern life changed in the years after the Civil War and into the industrial age.