The South in Modern America: A Region at Odds

If one can view history as if it were groomed with a fine toothed comb, Dewey W. Grantham has viewed and displayed it as such. In The South in Modern America A Region At Odds, Grantham clips and styles his interpretation of history into a well-coifed account of the complex post-Reconstruction history of the South. Packing an extensive body of data into four hundred pages, he adds insight to a confusing era in American history. Although his point, counter-point style of comparison tends to be confusing, and his considerable use of statistics is coupled with plentiful politico name dropping, his knowledge of the era is evident in his work. Beginning with the sluggish economy that followed Reconstruction, Grantham describes the contrast between North and South and the differences between their industrial and agrarian societies. The industrialized North gained control of the limited southern corporations and industries and the resources that supplied them. The poor farmers of the South were, according to Grantham, "poorer than other Americans. Those who farmed -- the great majority of the region's inhabitants -- were steadily more landless" while workers in the South had fewer vocational and industrial skills during the era. The "Lost Cause" became the myth of the region through the declamation of men like Confederate hero, General John B. Gordon. By linking religion and Confederate images together a "civil religion" formed in the minds, hearts and legends of the southern populace. "This mythology," Grantham claims, "became a powerful factor in shaping southern politics during the next half-century." Quoting economist Gavin Wright, Grantham describes the South as a "colonial economy" in the control and coercion of the society to the north. Railroads, mines, financial corporations furnaces and many distribution institutions in the South were owned and controlled by northerners. The Spanish American War of 1898 brought northerners and southerners together to rally around the American flag. Nationalism superseded sectional diversity while political realignment in the late 1890's helped to "disfranchise most blacks..., and create the Solid South. The Populist movement grew in the region. Southern politicians gained influence and domination of the Democratic party in Washington. The economic outlook brightened while racial freedoms diminished. "By the turn of the century," Grantham states, illustrating the nation's passivity concerning African-American rights, "some southerners were contemplating a new role for the South in American life, a role made possible by the North's... ultimate approval of the southern mission to preserve the nation's racial purity." Moving into the era of Woodrow Wilson's presidency and World War I, Grantham slides into a deluge of political names -- McLemore of Texas, Swanson and Tillman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, Kitchin of the House Ways and Means Comm