Writing Southern Politics

by Steed, Robert P.; Moreland, Laurence W.

• ISBN13: 9780813123820
• ISBN10: 0813123828
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-26
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

Scholars, journalists, writers, and pundits have long regarded the South as the nation's most politically distinctive region. Its culture, history, and social and economic institutions have fostered unique political ideas that intrigue observers and have had profound political consequences for the nation's citizens, politicians, and policymakers. Writing Southern Politics is the most comprehensive review of the large body of post--World War II literature on southern politics. Since the publication of V.O. Key Jr.'s landmark work, Southern Politics in State and Nation (1949), scholars have produced an astounding number of books, monographs, professional journal articles, and research papers addressing elements of continuity and change in southern politics. The contributors to this book sort through the literature, identifying major themes, examining areas of scholarly disagreement, and making the key dimensions and contours of the region's politics understandable. Individually, the essays in this volume identify and clarify the key writing and research in selected subfields of southern politics, including religion, race, women, and political parties. Collectively, the essays identify and discuss the major components of and trends in southern politics over the past half century. The contributors, some of the foremost scholars in the field, have been heavily involved in researching and writing about southern politics during the past three decades and have observed the development of many of the research projects that form the foundation of southern political literature. In many instances, their own writings are included in the body of literature they discuss, bringing unique skills, research, and perspectives to their original essays. In addition to reviewing existing literature, Writing Southern Politics also includes suggestions for a future research agenda. Not all aspects of the region's dramatic fifty-year transformation have been fully explored, and the continuation of this development ensures new avenues to examine. The discussion of past research and writing is an invaluable tool for understanding the trends in southern politics over the past half century. By examining these trends and developing an agenda for future research, the authors provide a roadmap for identifying the changes that will likely shape the region over the next half century.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Jack Bass	vii
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction. The Literature of Southern Politics
Robert P. Steed and Laurence W. Moreland	1	(10)
1. Southern Political Party Development since World War II
Charles Prysby	11	(30)
2. Who Wants to Party? Activists and Changing Southern Politics
John J. McGlennon	41	(24)
3. Unfinished Business: Writing the Civil Rights Movement
Richard K. Scher	65	(26)
4. Race and Southern Politics: The Special Case of Congressional Districting
Richard L. Engstrom	91	(28)
5. Writing about Women in Southern Politics
Penny M. Miller and Lee R. Remington	119	(22)
6. Reflections on Scholarship in Religion and Southern Politics
Ted C. Jelen	141	(26)
7. Population Shifts Change a Region's Politics: The Old South Morphs into the New
Susan A. MacManus with the assistance of Brittany L. Penberthy and Thomas A. Watson	167	(22)
8. Issues, Ideology, and Political Opinions in the South
Patrick R. Cotter, Stephen D. Shaffer, and David A. Breaux	189	(30)
9. Presidential Elections and the South
Harold W. Stanley	219	(22)
10. Congress and the South
Stanley P. Berard	241	(28)
11. Southern Governors and Legislatures
Branwell DuBose Kapeluck, Robert P. Steed, and Laurence W. Moreland	269	(22)
Conclusion. Looking Back and Looking Forward: A Research Agenda for Southern Politics
John A. Clark	291	(12)
Contributors	303	(2)
Index	305