t is sometimes said that Kentucky joined the South after the Civil War, and many books have been devoted to studying the influence of the war and its aftermath on the Commonwealth. But less is known about the decades before the Civil War. In Generations of Hope: Kentucky, 1800-1865, James Ramage and Andrea Watkins explore this crucial but often overlooked period, finding that that the early years of statehood comprised an era of great hope and progress. Ramage and Watkins demonstrate how Kentuckians looked outward, strongly supporting their country in the War of 1812 because they viewed the...