Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy since the Civil War

by Gavin Wright

In this provocative and intricate analysis of the postbellum southern economy, Gavin Wright finds in the South’s peculiar labor market the answer to the perennial question of why the region remained backward for so long. After the Civil War, Wright explains, the South continued to be a low-wage regional market embedded in a high-wage national economy. He vividly details the origins, workings, and ultimate demise of that distinct system. The post-World War II southern economy, which created today’s Sunbelt, Wright shows, is not the result of the evolution of the old system, but the product of a revolution brought on by the New Deal and World War II that shattered the South’s stagnant structure and created a genuinely new, thriving order.

Genres: History, American History

Paperback

First published June 22, 1986

Reviews

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gavin Wright, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War (1986)
1. Pre-Civil War the bulk of Southern capital was slaves, while in the North it was land and capitalists
2. The South did not become integrated until post-WWII
3. The revolution is the destruction of the Southern economy because their labor market was taken away