The First New South, 1865-1920 (The American History Series) (American History (Harlan Davidson))

The book examines critical questions, such as in what ways was the First New South different from the Old South yet still unlike the North? Despite the impact of change, Rabinowitz argues, by 1920 the South was more as it had been in 1865 and less like the North than New South proponents had claimed. He explores ways in which this was due to a combination of spectacular changes in the North and resistance to change in the South. The problem, he says, was not that the New South was not new, but that it was not new enough.