Defining the Peace: World War II Veterans, Race, and the Remaking of Southern Political Tradition

by Jennifer E. Brooks

Brooks studies the competing efforts of black and white WW II veterans in Georgia, as they worked to shape postwar politics. Black veterans forged new grassroots networks to mobilize against candidates who opposed their vision of racial equality; reactionary white veterans, in turn, organized to support candidates who curbed openings toward greater equality in favor of a conservative, economically driven vision of modernization in the South.

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2004

Reviews

[Katie Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is important and disturbing and revelatory, as I have found when reading most books about Black history. If you are interested in military history, Black history, American history, or are researching Georgia's reactions to wars against fascism, this book is detailed and compelling.

[David Lucander · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good case study about the ascendency of chamber of commerce conservationism and the making of a modernized racist south. The Talmadge family is deservedly a villain in this book. Sometime relies a little too heavily on secondary literature (O'Brien, Dittmer, Tyson), but at least the sources are solid. Brooks writes excellent footnotes.