I guess its time for me to lay out all my cards and start earning my keep around here. One of my academic fields is economic history, and I believe that one of the ways that the south is most different than the rest of the country has to do with its particular economic experiences.

A historical map. As if you didn't know what the Southeast looked like.

I plan to make this analysis in three parts. In this outing, I will discuss southern economic history into the early nineteenth century, taking us through the Colonial periods, essentially setting up what will happen when King Cotton ascends to the throne in the wake of the early national period. My next issue will take the story of cotton through to nearly the 20th century, and I’ll conclude with a story of the past 100 years.
Click to read more…

Jeff has really thrown down a gauntlet early in our blog’s providence by bringing up racism. He is right on at least one point. Racism is indeed a knotty subject. In the past roughly 60 years, attempts to strike at like the Gordian Knot of old have resulted at best resentment (affirmative action), or at worst massive legal battles invoking personal liberties and some of the most successful third party Presidential candidacies in American History (bussing, quotas, etc. in the former; Strom Thurmond and George Wallace for the latter). Click to read more…