The South and America Since World War II

In The American South Since World War II, James C. Cobb provides the first truly comprehensive history of the South since World War II, brilliantly capturing an era of dramatic change, both in the South and in its relationship with the rest of the na... Read more

In The American South Since World War II, James C. Cobb provides the first truly comprehensive history of the South since World War II, brilliantly capturing an era of dramatic change, both in the South and in its relationship with the rest of the nation.
This all-inclusive history flows seamlessly from the Dixiecrats to the "southern strategy" and the South's domination of today's GOP, from the national ascendance of southern culture and music to a globalized Dixie's allure for foreign factories and immigrants, from the typecast roles of women to an increasingly visible gay population in contemporary southern life. At the heart of the book lies the struggle for Civil Rights. Jim Crow still towered over the South in 1945, but Cobb shows that Pearl Harbor loosened forces that would bring about its ultimate demise. Mounting black political clout outside the South, in addition to the contradiction of fighting racist totalitarianism abroad while tolerating it at home, set the stage for returning black veterans to spearhead the NAACP's postwar assault on the South's racial system. This assault sparked not only vocal white resistance but increasing violence that culminated in the murder of young Emmett Till in 1955. Energized rather than intimidated, however, blacks in Montgomery staged the famous bus boycott, bringing the Rev. Martin Luther King to the fore and paving the way for the dramatic protests and confrontations that finally brought racial change and two-party politics to the South.
As in the prize-winning The Most Southern Place on Earth and Away Down South, Cobb writes with wit and grace, revealing a thorough grasp of his native region. Brimming with original insight, The American South Since World War II is the definitive history of the postwar South and its changing role in national life. Less