The authors of this volume look at the academy, America's prevalent form of higher schooling in the 18th and 19th centuries, highlighting its role in the formation of middle-class social networks and culture during that period. "Nancy Beadie and Kim Tolley restore the private academy to its rightful place alongside common schools in the history of American education... Each of the essays in this collection draws on the growing body of scholarship on the colonial South to enhance our understanding of this vital region." -- The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 69, No. 4