Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"
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, author of
Beyond Blackface: African Americans and the Creation of American Popular Culture
Review
"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
About the Author
K. Stephen Prince is assistant professor of history at the University of South Florida.