Part 1. Overview and Comparisons
Central Kentucky's "Athens of the West" Image in the Nation and in History / James C. Klotter
Putting Kentucky in Its Place / Stephen Aron
Kentucky's "Athens of the West" Viewed in a "Distant Mirror" / Shearer Davis Bowman
Part 2. Facets of Life
Slavery and Abolition in Kentucky : "Patter-rollers were everywhere" / Gerald L. Smith
"Mrs. Boone, I presume?" : In Search of the Idea of Womanhood in Kentucky's Early Years / Randolph Hollingsworth
"A richer land never seen yet" : Horse Country and the "Athens of the West" / Maryjean Wall
Three Central Kentuckians, the "Bone" of Political Office, and the Kentucky Exodus, 1792-1852 / Mark V. Wetherington
Part 3. Science, Arts, and Education
Jewels in the Crown : Civic Pride and Educational Institutions in the Bluegrass, 1792-1852 / John R. Thelin
Horace Holley and the Struggle for Kentucky's Mind and Soul / Tom Eblen and Mollie Eblen
Living Hills : The Frontier Science of Rafinesque / Matthew F. Clarke
Lexington Limners : Portrait Painters in the "Athens of the West" / Estill Curtis Pennington
Public Music Making, Concert Life, and Composition in Kentucky during the Early National Period / Nikos Pappas
Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Neoclassical Lexington / Patrick Snadon
Afterword / by Jim Gray.