The largely untold story of the great migration of white
southerners to the industrial Midwest and its profound and enduring
political and social consequences Over the first two-thirds of the
twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the
economically depressed southern countryside and migrated to the
booming factory towns and cities of the industrial Midwest in
search of work. The "hillbilly highway" was one of the largest
internal relocations of poor and working people in American
history, yet it has largely escaped close study by historians. In
Hillbilly Highway, Max Fraser recovers the long-overlooked story of
this massive demographic event and reveals how it has profoundly
influenced American history and culture—from the modern
industrial labor movement and the postwar urban crisis to the rise
of today’s white working-class conservatives. The book draws on a
diverse range of sources—from government reports, industry
archives, and union records to novels, memoirs, oral histories, and
country music—to narrate the distinctive class experience that
unfolded across the Transappalachian migration during these
critical decades. As the migration became a terrain of both social
advancement and marginalization, it knit together white
working-class communities across the Upper South and the
Midwest—bringing into being a new cultural region that remains a
contested battleground in American politics to the present. The
compelling story of an important and neglected chapter in American
history, Hillbilly Highway upends conventional wisdom about the
enduring political and cultural consequences of the great migration
of white southerners in the twentieth century.
General
Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Politics and Society in Modern America |
Release date: |
August 2023 |
First published: |
2023 |
Authors: |
Max Fraser
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 156mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
336 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-19111-9 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-691-19111-5 |
Barcode: |
9780691191119 |
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