The American South and the Great War, 1914-1924

Edited by Matthew L. Downs and M. Ryan Floyd

Contributions by Annette Cox, James Hall, Fritz Hamer, Angela Jill Cooley, Kathelene McCarty Smith, Keith Phelan Gorman, Janet G. Hudson and Lee Sartain

256 Pages / 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.60 in / 9 tables

Hardcover

9780807169377

Published: November 2018

$47.00

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eBook

9780807170137

Published: November 2018

$19.95

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Edited by Matthew L. Downs and M. Ryan Floyd, The American South and the Great War, 1914–1924 investigates how American participation in World War I further strained the region’s relationship with the federal government, how wartime hardships altered the South’s traditional social structure, and how the war effort stressed and reshaped the southern economy. The volume contends that participation in World War I contributed greatly to the modernization of the South, initiating changes ultimately realized during World War II and the postwar era. Although the war had a tremendous impact on the region, few scholars have analyzed the topic in a comprehensive fashion, making this collection a much-needed addition to the study of American and southern history.

These essays address a variety of subjects, including civil rights, economic growth and development, politics and foreign policy, women’s history, gender history, and military history. Collectively, this volume highlights a time and an experience often overshadowed by later events, illustrating the importance of World War I in the emergence of a modern South.

Matthew L. Downs, associate professor of history at the University of Mobile, is the author of Transforming the South: Federal Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1915–1960.

M. Ryan Floyd, associate professor of history at Lander University, is the author of Abandoning Neutrality: Woodrow Wilson and the Beginning of the Great War, August 1914–December 1915.

This work highlights the wide range of effects World War I had on six Deep South states. Looking beyond the typical war years and thus filling a gap in the literature, editors Downs and Floyd present a fine collection with three major themes—African American experiences and responses, economic changes and challenges, and southern identity. ~Ruth Truss, contributor to The Great War in the Heart of Dixie: Alabama during World War I

Though historical analysis has generally focused on the Civil War and World War II as the great transformative wars, the essays in The American South and the Great War, 1914–1924 illustrate just how important World War I was not just to the economy but to the very idea of ‘southern identity’ and patriotism, to race relations, gender, civil rights, and culture. This is an essential book for students of the modern South. ~Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln: A History

A modern, thorough study of World War I’s impact on the American South has been long overdue. Finally, we have a comprehensive treatment in one volume of how the war influenced changes related to race, women, economics, regional and national identity, and the region’s relationship to federal power, illustrating how critical the Great War was in preparing the ground for the deeper transformation resulting from World War II. ~Rod Andrew Jr., author of Long Gray Lines: The Southern Military School Tradition, 1839–1915

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