The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945 [Book Review]

Abstract

Updating V. O. Key's Southern Politics (1949) has become a cottage industry. How good is the latest product and how does it compare with the original masterwork? Based largely on interviews with prominent southern politicos, knowledgeable newspaper reporters, and a scattering of activists and political technicians, the Jack Bass-Walter DeVries volume is sprightly and readable high journalism. Laced with classic anecdotes, it will intoxicate amateur politicians and aficionados of the regional pastime, flavor undergraduate reading lists, and add zest to lectures on twentieth century politics. Nonetheless, however craftsman-like the sketching of details, analytical scholars will find the canvas as a whole inferior to the original.

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