Stories of the South: Race and the Reconstruction of Southern Identity, 1865-1915

by K. Stephen Prince

Overview

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the character of the South, and even its persistence as a distinct region, was an open question. During Reconstruction, the North assumed significant power to redefine the South, imagining a region rebuilt and modeled on northern society. The white South actively resisted these efforts, battling the legal strictures of Reconstruction on the ground. Meanwhile, white southern storytellers worked to recast the South's image, romanticizing the Lost Cause and heralding the birth of a New South. In Stories of the South, K. Stephen Prince argues that this cultural production was as important as political competition and economic striving in turning the South and the nation away from the egalitarian promises of Reconstruction and toward Jim Crow.

Examining novels, minstrel songs, travel brochures, illustrations, oratory, and other cultural artifacts produced in the half century following the Civil War, Prince demonstrates the centrality of popular culture to the reconstruction of southern identity, shedding new light on the complicity of the North in the retreat from the possibility of racial democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469614199
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/28/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

K. Stephen Prince is assistant professor of history at the University of South Florida.

Table of Contents

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the North assumed significant power to redefine the South, imagining a region rebuilt and modeled on northern society. The white South actively resisted these efforts, battling the legal strictures of Reconstruction on the ground. Meanwhile, white southern storytellers worked to recast the South's image, romanticizing the Lost Cause and heralding the birth of a New South. Prince argues that this cultural production was as important as political competition and economic striving in turning the South and the nation away from the egalitarian promises of Reconstruction and toward Jim Crow.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Stories of the South is a thoughtful, well-conceived, and valuable contribution to the scholarship on the Reconstruction era. It offers a fresh perspective on topics of long-standing interest while simultaneously directing our attention to new fields of endeavor. It is written in a lively, compelling, and laudably concise style. This book marks the emergence of a significant new voice on the post-Civil War South.—W. Fitzhugh Brundage, editor of Beyond Blackface: African Americans and the Creation of American Popular Culture

Extremely original and important. . . . A well written book that will be of interest to scholars in U.S. history and to scholars in English and other disciplines interested in what is often called the New Southern Studies.—Grace E. Hale, University of Virginia

Editorial Reviews

Prince marshals a vast array of evidence and makes a convincing case for the persuasive power of many of these Southern stories.—Civil War Monitor

Stories of the South is not only an important addition to the historiography of the period but also an impressively researched and engaging book full of well-told stories.—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

A powerful account of how the battles over regional identities in the postbellum United States were as likely to occur in the playhouse or travel brochure, as they were in the courthouse or senate chambers.—Journal of American History

An innovative perspective that locates the consumption of stories of the South in the North and indicts northerners as culpable in the retreat from racial democracy . . . . [W]ill appeal to scholars across the humanities.—H-Net

Those southern stories—about a region essentially different but fundamentally American, one shorn of overt political separateness but nevertheless carrying great cultural authority on matters of race—retain a remarkable persuasive ability, despite several generations of scholarship devoted to undermining them. Prince's excellent book shows why.—American Historical Review

Very original and innovative . . . certainly merits reading.—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Brings new depth to our understanding of the nation's turn away from the egalitarian possibilities that flickered briefly after slavery's demise. . . . [Makes] impressive use of a diverse array of cultural artifacts.—The Journal of Southern History

From the Publisher