Over three decades ago, V.O. Key wrote a classic study of the
South, Southern Politics in State and Nation. But that was written
in a day when the Republicans couldn't buy a vote below the
Mason-Dixon Line. In recognition of the radical changes in the
South, the Blacks posit their work as the modern replacement to
Key's. And in large measure, they succeed. Of course, the most
crucial factor in the changed politics of the South has been the
enfranchisement of the region's blacks. Speaking of the past, the
authors write that "in no small measure the Solid South rested on
the electoral dominance of the native white population." But along
with the new black voters came a herd of migrating nonsouthem
whites, along with a replacement white generation that predisposed
the region away from traditional one-party status. Apart from
voting patterns and racial configurations, the Blacks also document
a radical change in the southern social order since WW II, to the
extent that, by 1980, a majority of employed southerners were
considered middle class. "The reigning political philosophy of the
new southern middle class is the entrepreneurial version of the
individualistic political culture, a blend of conservative and
progressive themes." The changes visible in the South affect not
only the national political figures who come from the area but the
state leaders as well. "The pivotal change in the nature of
southern state leadership has been the decline of segregationist
marginalists and the rise of nonsegregationist adaptives." To
anyone who pooh-poohs the South as a powerful force, consider that,
with the rise of Georgia Senator Sam Nunn to national prominence,
it is possible that two out of three of our late-20th-century
Presidents could well be southerners. Top-notch scholarship.
(Kirkus Reviews)
This wide-ranging examination of the "newest" South is a leading
candidate to replace the classic work by V. O. Key, now two
generations old. Politics and Society in the South is a systematic
interpretation of the most important national and state tendencies
in southern politics since 1920. The authors begin by describing
the salient features of the old southern politics, against which
they then depict the emergence of the new South: the changing
composition of the population, the growth of industry and cities,
economic diversification, and the rise of an urban middle class. A
major component of the greatest southern transformation since the
Civil War is the altered status of blacks from a disfranchised
underclass to a franchised citizenry, a change that the authors
discuss in all its ramifications. The decline of the Democratic
Party is charted and related to the rise of the black vote and the
transitional attitudes of white southerners. Finally, regional
trends in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial politics are
set forth, and the overall political directions that are still
reshaping southern politics and creating a two-party system for the
first time are defined. The authors contend that, notable
improvements in race relations notwithstanding, the central
tendencies in southern politics are primarily established by the
values, beliefs, and objectives of the expanding white urban middle
class. This is the crucible for a more competitive two-party
politics that is emerging in the South.
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