White Southerners. Revised Edition.
1985 · Amherst
by Killian, Lewis M.
Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. Octavo, white cloth (hardcover), xv, 195 pp. Fine, in a Near-Fine, mylar protected dust jacket. From dust jacket: Originally published in 1970 as part of a series entitled “Ethic Groups in Comparative Perspective,” White Southerners is considered a classic in the sociology and history of the American South. This revised edition contains a new preface and a final additional chapter covering the period from 1970 to 1984. White Southerners examines the experience and social psychology of white southerners, treating them as a distinct ethnic group. Drawing on historical and sociological research, as well as personal experience, Lewis M. Killian portrays white southerners as a people who, though part of the dominant Anglo group, often act as if they were members of a minority. He traces the history of this self-consciousness from colonial times as described by W. J. Cash in The Mind of the South through the era of the “new pluralism,” when ethnic pride surfaced among blacks and whites alike. In a new chapter, Killian reviews the “Carter decade” and considers the ramifications of the newest “Solid South,” which is predominantly Republican despite an increase in southern black political power. “There are many insights in this book, ranging from those that show the tensions associated with strong regional identity and the identification with fundamental Americanism, to those that reveal that many southern whites who leave the South for other areas of the country have experiences quite similar to those of the “American-type minority.” The book is as relevant today as it was in 1970. It is an impressive study that has not yet received the attentio that it deserves.” -- William Julius Wilson, University of Chicago. (Inventory #: 61048bd)