"The best sort of introductory study... packed with enlightening information." The Times Literary Supplement

Poor whites have been isolated from mainstream white Southern culture and have been in turn stereotyped as rednecks and Holy Rollers, discriminated against, and misunderstood. In their isolation, they have developed a unique subculture and defended it with a tenacity and pride that puzzles and confuses the larger society. Written 25 years ago, this book was one scholar s attempt to understand these people and their culture. For this new edition, Wayne Flynt has provided a new...

These compelling accounts of hard times and hard work reveal human courage, dignity, and resilience from a generation that endured the Great Depression.

One achievement of the 1930s Federal Writers' Project was its ambitious collection of life histories based on interviews with southern workers and farmers. For Up before Daylight James Seay Brown chose 28 of the more than 100 accounts from throughout Alabama as a rich sampling--from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast and from cities as well as rural regions. First published in 1982, Up before Daylight is now...

The Southern Presbyterian Church, U.S., is a denomination born in the Civil War and once called the most hawkish church in the nation. Yet, by 1973 the PCUS often openly criticized the U.S. military ventures and foreign policy objectives. This change in the church s attitude toward the nation was the occasion of frequent and fervent debate among its members. What accounts for that transformation? In this examination of one mainline church during the postwar period, Nutt provides a case study that may help us understand not only Presbyterianism in the South but also changing Protestantism...

The first book-length interpretation of the new conservative leaders of America's largest Protestant denomination.

Uneasy in Babylon is based on extensive interviews with the most important Southern Baptist conservatives who have assumed control of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Known to many Americans from their appearances on national TV talk shows, such as Larry King Live and Fox News, they advocate a return to traditional values throughout the country. Hankins shows how differing cultural perceptions help explain the great chasm that...

This collection of provocative and timely essays addresses the ways in which religious and educational institutions have come to define one another and American culture and identity.

Education in America-public and private, from the elementary to the university level-is the subject of urgent, ongoing debates. School vouchers, home schooling, prayer in the classrooms, sex education in the schools, and evolution versus creationism are just a few of the touchstones and flashpoints that have ignited a national dialogue concerning the role of religion in U.S. educational...

When Fred Shuttlesworth suffered only a bump on the head in the 1956 bombing of his home, members of his church called it a miracle. Shuttlesworth took it as a sign that God would protect him on the mission that had made him a target that night. Standing in front of his demolished home, Shuttlesworth vigorously renewed his commitment to integrate Birmingham's buses, lunch counters, police force, and parks. The incident transformed him, in the eyes of Birmingham's blacks, from an up-and-coming young minister to a virtual folk hero and, in the view of white Birmingham, from obscurity to...

This fascinating history underscores the importance of little people in affecting the U.S. government. It stresses the courage of a black man, Rosco Jones, and a white woman, Grace Marsh, who dared to challenge the status quo in Alabama in the early 1940s. These two Jehovah s Witnesses helped to lay a foundation for testing the constitutionality of state and local laws, establishing precedents that the Civil Rights movement, the feminist movement, and similar forces could follow. Newton has prepared a finely woven tale of oral, legal, and social history that opens a window on the world of...