Lacy K. Ford

Understanding the American South

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Americans in the twenty-first century find themselves searching for new understandings of their history. They seek explanations for chronic political polarization, acute pandemic polarization, social media addiction, heightened concern over global warming and armed global conflict, widening cultural and economic gaps between city and countryside, persistent racial tensions, gender divides, tensions over abortion rights and the public school curriculum, and a forty-year pattern of increasing economic inequality in the United States. Americans are looking for a past that can help them understand the divided and fractious present, a past that enlightens and inspires. In this collection of original essays, Lacy K. Ford uses the past to inform the present, as he provides a deeper, more nuanced understanding of American history and the American South's complicated relationship with it.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 308
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. November 2024
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 653g
• ISBN-13: 9781009522021
• ISBN-10: 1009522027
• Artikelnr.: 70288480

Autorenporträt

Lacy K. Ford is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina, where he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2016-2020. The author of two prize-winning books, he has also been interviewed by The New York Times, CBS Evening News, CNN, and NPR's All Things Considered.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction; Part I. Understanding the American South and the Civil War in
a New Century: 1. A twenty-first century meaning for the American Civil
War: a post-Cold War reflection; Part II. Understanding the South and the
American Identity: 2. The liberal tradition: southern exceptionalism, the
Civil War, and the future of American liberalism; 3. The 'genius of
American politics': The South, ideology, and American identity; 4. The
'People of Plenty': abundance and the American South in the age of
inequality; Part III. Understanding Slavery, Race, and Inequality in the
American South: 5. The problem of slavery reconsidered: the South, the
nation, and a reflection on 'the travail of slavery'; 6. The legacy of W.
E. B. DuBois: slavery and race in southern and American history; 7. An
American elegy: the South during the ages of capital and inequality; 8.
Transforming southern history: the role of women historians; 9. Fraying
fabric of community: the unraveling of southern white working-class
culture; Part IV. Understanding History and Irony: 10. The irony of
southern history and the problem of innocence in American life.