C. Vann Woodward is one of the most significant historians of the post-Reconstruction South. Over his career of nearly seven decades, he wrote nine books; won the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes; penned hundreds of book reviews, opinion pieces, and scholarly essays; and gained national and international recognition as a public intellectual. Even today historians must contend with Woodward's sweeping interpretations about southern history. What is less known about Woodward is his scholarly interest in the history of white antebellum southern dissenters, the immediate consequences of emancipation, and the history of Reconstruction in the years prior to the Compromise of 1877. Woodward addressed these topics in three mid-century lecture series that have never before been published. The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward presents for the first time lectures that showcase his life-long interest in exploring the contours and limits of nineteenth-century liberalism during key moments of social upheaval in the South. Historians Natalie J. Ring and Sarah E. Gardner analyze these works, drawing on correspondence, published and unpublished material, and Woodward's personal notes. They also chronicle his failed attempts to finish a much-awaited comprehensive history of Reconstruction and reflect on the challenges of writing about the failures of post-Civil War American society during the civil rights era, dubbed the Second Reconstruction. With an insightful foreword by eminent Southern historian Edward L. Ayers, The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward offers new perspectives on this towering authority on nineteenth- and twentieth-century southern history and his attempts to make sense of the past amidst the tumultuous times in which he lived.

The history of thought and thinking in the American South is now alive with curiosity and poised for a new maturity. Thanks to the efforts of a growing variety of critics, the region is increasingly understood as a cultural habitat comprised of flows of ideas and sensibilities that originate both inside and outside traditional boundaries. This volume of essays uniquely combines perspectives from historians and literary scholars to explore a wide spectrum of thought about a region long understood as distinctive, yet often taken to represent "American" culture and character. Contributors first engage with how southern thinkers of all sorts have struggled with belonging--who is an insider and who is an outsider. Second, they consider how thought in the South has over time created ideas about the South. The volume capitalizes on an interdisciplinary synergy that has come to characterize southern studies, exploring current creative tensions between classic themes in southern history and the new ways to approach them. Region and identity, intellectuals and change, the South as an idea and ideas in the South-these continue to inspire the best new research as showcased in this collection. Contributors are Michael T. Bernath, Stephen Berry, John Grammer, Michael Kreyling, Scott Romine, Beth Barton Schweiger, Mitchell Snay, Melanie Benson Taylor, Jonathan Daniel Wells, and Timothy J. Williams.

During the Civil War, its devastating aftermath, and the decades following, many southern white women turned to writing as a way to make sense of their experiences. Combining varied historical and literary sources, Sarah Gardner argues that women served as guardians of the collective memory of the war and helped define and reshape southern identity. She considers such well-known authors as Caroline Gordon, Ellen Glasgow, and Margaret Mitchell and also recovers works by lesser-known writers such as Mary Ann Cruse, Mary Noailles Murfree, and Varina Davis. Gardner reveals the existence of a strong community of Confederate women who were conscious of their shared effort to define a new and compelling vision of the southern war experience. In demonstrating the influence of this vision, Gardner highlights the role of the written word in defining a new cultural identity for the postbellum South.

The history of thought and thinking in the American South is now alive with curiosity and poised for a new maturity. Thanks to the efforts of a growing variety of critics, the region is increasingly understood as a cultural habitat comprised of flows of ideas and sensibilities that originate both inside and outside traditional boundaries. This volume of essays uniquely combines perspectives from historians and literary scholars to explore a wide spectrum of thought about a region long understood as distinctive, yet often taken to represent "American" culture and character. Contributors first engage with how southern thinkers of all sorts have struggled with belonging--who is an insider and who is an outsider. Second, they consider how thought in the South has over time created ideas about the South. The volume capitalizes on an interdisciplinary synergy that has come to characterize southern studies, exploring current creative tensions between classic themes in southern history and the new ways to approach them. Region and identity, intellectuals and change, the South as an idea and ideas in the South-these continue to inspire the best new research as showcased in this collection. Contributors are Michael T. Bernath, Stephen Berry, John Grammer, Michael Kreyling, Scott Romine, Beth Barton Schweiger, Mitchell Snay, Melanie Benson Taylor, Jonathan Daniel Wells, and Timothy J. Williams.