The South in the History of the Nation, Volume One: A Reader: Through Reconstruction

Link's collection of original source documents addresses the central themes of the American South since the Civil War. In essence, these are what made the South distinct from the North. So one essay explains the rise of the Klan, while another discusses Negro education, which had been parlously neglected under slavery, if not outrightly banned. Another theme was the rural populism. Basically the same as that in the prarie states and the MidWest. Another chapter tackles industrialisation in the South, especially in the textile mills. These took out the textile industry of New England. One irony to a contemporary reader is that in turn, after a century, the Southern textile mills are faltering under globalisation and cheaper competitors in Pakistan, China and elsewhere. This particular chapter shows that current complaints from the endangered Southern mills ring hollow when viewed through a longer lens of history. As their forebears obsoleted the New England mills.