|
|
|
Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s
This sweeping work of cultural history explores a time of startling turbulence and change in the South, years that have often been dismissed as placid and dull. In the wake of World War II, southerners anticipated a peaceful and prosperous future, but as Pete Daniel demonstrates, the road into the 1950s took some unexpected turns. Daniel chronicles the myriad forces that turned the world southerners had known upside down in the postwar period. In chapters that explore such subjects as the civil rights movement, segregation, and school integration; the breakdown of traditional agriculture and the ensuing rural-urban migration; gay and lesbian life; and the emergence of rock 'n' roll music and stock car racing, as well as the triumph of working-class culture, he reveals that the 1950s South was a place with the potential for revolutionary change. In the end, however, the chance for significant transformation was squandered, Daniel argues. One can only imagine how different southern history might have been if politicians, the press, the clergy, and local leaders had supported democratic reforms that bestowed full citizenship on African Americans—and how little would have been accomplished if a handful of blacks and whites had not taken risks to bring about the changes that did come..
Price: $15.00
[Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
The White South and the Red Menace: Segregationists, Anticommunism, and Massive Resistance, 1945-1965
George Lewis explores the various and subtle ways that white southern segregationists used anticommunist rhetoric to undermine the civil rights movement He examines the thoughts, traditions, and actions of those southerners from the end of the Second World War to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the period when the movement put the South's segregated society under immense pressure. In response, the white South dug in its heels. Under the banner of "Massive Resistance," segregationists developed an array of weapons to defend their way of life. While they practiced traditional southern tactics--calling opponents "outsiders" and occasionally employing mob violence--they made sophisticated use of the pervasive Cold War climate of the 1950s and 1960s, labeling their opponents "reds" and accusing them of being led, run, and financed by communists. However, Lewis shows that segregationists were not monolithic reactionaries but rather were intelligent, dynamic, and multifaceted in their defense of white supremacy. He discusses the critical distinction between those who cynically exploited the issue of communism and those who genuinely believed in the threat, and he emphasizes that the majority of segregationists chose their red-baiting targets with clinical accuracy for maximum effect. Others refused to red-bait altogether for fear of detracting from their own favored resistance strategies, such as promoting racial science or putting up complex legal barricades. Many segregationists showed an acute awareness of their increasingly perilous position. Looking at the South in general and at the states of Virginia and North Carolina in particular, Lewis shows that the border states were keenly aware of their need to attract northern investment and could not indulge in the openly racist policies of their Deep South counterparts. As a result, their resistance became more cunning and their racism more covert. Based on oral histories and the papers of southern politicians, journalists, and activists, this finely nuanced history shows how anticommunism intersected with other weapons in the arsenal of Massive Resistance. .
Price: $59.94
[Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
|
|
|