This probing collection of essays assesses the wide influence of W. J. Cash and the profound effect of his classic dissection of southern history.

Perhaps more than any other historian, W. J. Cash revolutionized the interpretation of southern identity. In 1941, when he published The Mind of the South, he exploded the correlated myths of the Cavalier South and the New South and gave historiography a new gauge for examining Dixie.

In the half century since its publication, Cash's book has lain in the path of every historian of the South. Not all, however, have expressed unified...

This book reflects the best of contemporary scholarship on the history of the American South. Each contributor is an authority--one a Pulitzer Prize winner. The essays examine what life was like for the slaves; for the victims of terror and lynchings; for workers who dared strike and demand fairness; and for dissenters who challenged the accepted truths. The essays are grouped around three major research areas: history and the social sciences, history and biography, and the new labor history.

This is a unique collection of essays by some of the world's leading historians of the South,...