This collection of essays examines the development of the American South from the end of the Civil War to the end of World War II. Written by both well-known and emerging scholars, the essays are divided into sections that address some of the major issues of that era, such as race relations, economic development, political reform, the roles of southern women, the messages of folk music, and the problems of the region's historians. Each article offers fresh insights or new information on its subject, and collectively the articles help to illuminate how the most traditional of American...

The dramatic changes experienced by the South over the past 150 years have challenged deeply rooted values, beliefs, and institutions and shaped the region's complex and tumultuous history. These challenges, and the southern response to them, are the focus of this book. Presenting sixteen essays selected from more than eighty presented at a recent conference on the South, it provides an interpretive re-examination of five major topics in southern history. These are the impact of Reconstruction, the development of racial attitudes, the debate over secession, southern economic development,...