A Companion to the American South surveys and evaluates the most important and innovative writing on the entire sweep of the history of the southern United States. Twenty-nine essays from leading experts in the field analyze the various interpretive schools, briefly summarize the positions and approaches of the seminal books, and suggest the range of subjects and interpretations for every important era in southern history. The coverage includes topics such as slavery, politics, the Civil War and Reconstruction, race relations, the civil rights movement, southern religion, and women's history. Each chapter includes a select bibliography as a convenient reference to encourage further reading.

Intended for students, scholars, and general readers of U.S. southern history, this timely book is a primer to this exciting body of work and will guide research for years to come.

John B. Boles is William Pettus Hobby Professor of History at Rice University and Managing Editor of the Journal of Southern History. His recent books include The Irony of Southern Religion (1994) and The South Through Time: A History of an American Region (second edition, 1999).

List of Contributors.

Preface.

Part I: the Colonial South.

1. The First Southerners: Indians of the Early South (Amy turner Bushnell).

2. Spanish and French Exploration and Colonization (Paul E. Hoffman).

3. The English Colonial South to 1750 (Cynthia A. Kierner).

4. The Origins of Slavery. 1619-1808 (Betty Wood).

5. Understanding the South in the Revolutionary Era, 1750--1789 (Ira D. Gruber).

Part II: The Antebellum South.

6. The South in the New Nation, 1790-1824. (Daniel S. Dupre).

7. The Plantation Economy (Mark M. Smith).

8. The Maturation of Slave Society and Culture (Stephanie J. Shaw).

9. Plain Folk Yeomanry in the Antebellum South (Samuel C. Hyde, Jr.).

10. Religion in the Pre-Civil War South (Randy J. Sparks).

11. Politics in the Antebellum South (Daniel W, Crofts).

12. Women in the Old South (Sally G. McMillen).

13. Intellectual and Cultural History of the Old South (David Moltke-Hansen).

Part III: Civil War and Reconstruction.

14. Sectionalism and the Secession Crisis (Mary A. DeCredico).

15. The Civil War: Military and Political Aspects along with Social, Religious, Gender, and Salve Perspectives (George C. Rable).

16. Emancipation and Its Consequences (Larua F. Edwards).

17. Political Reconstruction, 1865-1877 (Michael W. Fitzgerald).

18. Economic Consequences of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Joseph P. Reidy).

Part IV: The New South.

19. Southern Politics in the Age of Populism and Progressivism: A Historiographical essay (Samuel L. Webb).

20. The Rise of Jim Crow, 1880-1920 (James Beeby and Donald G. Nieman).

21. Women in the Post-Civil War South (Elizabeth Hayes Turner).

22. The Discovery of Appalachia: regional Revisionism as Scholarly Renaissance (John C. Inscoe).

23. Religion in the American South Since the Civil War (Paul Harvey).

Part V: The Modern South.

24. Southern Environmental History (Mart A. Stewart).

25. Labor Relations in the Industrializing South (Daniel Letwin).

26. The Impact of the New Deal and World War II on the South (Pamela Tyler).

27. The Civil Rights Movement (Charles W. Eagles).

28. the Rise of the Sunbelt: Urbanization and Industrialization (David R. Goldfield).

29. The Transformation of Southern Politics, 1954 to the Present (Wayne Flynt).

Index.