The Making Of The American South: A Short History, 1500-1877

Harris (history, U. of New Hampshire) synthesizes recent historical research on the American South, seeking to go beyond the mythology of "Lost Cause" narratives in order to portray the political and demographic diversity of the region prior to the development of a common dependence on slavery and a developing political conflict with the nonslave states as the unifying factor for southern whites following the Missouri crisis of 1819-1920. He focuses on the development of the slave-owning economy; the politics of secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction; and the construction of Southern identity in the post-war years. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

J. William Harris is Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of Plain Folk and Gentry in a Slave Society (1995) and Deep Souths: Delta, Piedmont, and Sea Island Society in the Age of Segregation (2001).