The Life and Death of the Solid South: A Political History | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Monographs

The Life and Death of the Solid South: A Political History

By Dewey W. Grantham (NHC Fellow, 1982–83)

American History; American South; Southern Culture; American Democratic Party; Political History; Regionalism; Politics

Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988

From the publisher’s description:

Southern-style politics was one of those peculiar institutions that differentiated the South from other American regions. This system -- long referred to as the Solid South -- embodied a distinctive regional culture and was perpetuated through an undemocratic distribution of power and a structure based on disfranchisement, malapportioned legislatures, and one-party politics. It was the mechanism that determined who would govern in the states and localities, and in national politics it was the means through which the South's politicians defended their region's special interests and political autonomy. The history of this remarkable institution can be traced in the gradual rise, long persistence, and ultimate decline of the Democratic Party dominance in the land below the Potomac and the Ohio.

This is the story that Dewey W. Grantham tells in his fresh and authoritative account of the South's modern political experience. The distillation of many years of research and reflection, is both a synthesis of the extensive literature on politics in the recent South and a challenging reinterpretation of the region's political history.

Subjects
History / Political Science / American History / American South / Southern Culture / American Democratic Party / Political History / Regionalism / Politics /

Grantham, Dewey W. (NHC Fellow, 1982–83). The Life and Death of the Solid South: A Political History. New Perspectives on the South. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988.