The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction

Wow, am I really the first person to review this book? Where to begin. I guess I'll keep it simple. This book is something of a response to C. Vann Woodward, and a much less biased review of the Reconstruction South. Ayers has done a lovely cultural history here, without the psychological baggage of Woodward. He's something of a "dates and statistics" man, so the narrative is frequently punctuated with such things. And like Starr's HUGE history of California, there's a particular emphasis on the history of institutions and biographical background. This is a terribly neglected period in Southern history, or one that has been needled to death by politically motivated writers such as Woodward and Cash. Take a look at this one if Cash leaves you rankled.