Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #838434 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 378 pages

From Library Journal
Life and labor in the South from the end of World War II to the Freedom Summer of 1964 have often been viewed as tranquil. However, Daniel, a curator at the National Museum of American History, argues that forces were emerging from the cultural and economic landscape that changed Southern life forever. The decline of labor-intensive agriculture; working-class cultural achievements, especially in stockcar racing and rock'n'roll; and, above all, the Civil Rights Movement challenged the ruling white elite and the middle class during the 1950s. Unfortunately, says Daniel, the revolutionary energy these interconnected movements generated was often sidetracked by the Washington bureaucracy, entrenched economic interest groups, and state and local political leaders. Events of the turbulent 1960s finally forced the South to confront its "lost revolutions." Daniel has produced a provocative, well-written, and thoroughly researched cultural history of some of the forces the South has experienced on its road to modernity. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Charles C. Hay, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Archives, Richmond
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Daniel chronicles the changes, such as agricultural technology and resistance to civil rights, that transformed the South in the period following World War II. He captures the unique southern culture that developed from poverty, religious fundamentalism, and racial obsessions and manifested itself in spiritual music, fast cars, and rebellious spirits. Daniel details the fight against integration following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and the growth of the Ku Klux Klan among lower-class whites. He examines the music business in the South, the appeal of black music and culture to rebellious white youth, the evolution of southern music into rock 'n' roll, and the eventual taming of its spontaneity as it went mainstream. Daniel portrays a similar phenomenon in stock car racing, an amusement that has its roots in bootleggers running from revenuers. And he details changes in farm technology that, along with the war, drove millions of southerners (mostly blacks) from rural to urban areas and out of the South entirely, spreading southern culture throughout the U.S. Vanessa Bush

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Daniel's book is opinionated, but backed by research and persuasively argued. . . . A critical examination of opportunity lost."