| Unlocking
V. O. Key Jr.
Southern Politics for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Angie Maxwell and Todd G. Shields
Modern
perspectives on a twentieth-century classic
“Unlike
much of the work on Southern Politics, which lavishes
praise on Key’s seminal work, the contributors to this
volume focus on omissions. The authors argue that to understand
the politics of the region, attention needs to be given to
the influences of religion, women, violence and non-conventional
political activities of African Americans in the pre–civil
rights era. This book will find a place beside Key’s
classic on many bookcases.”
—Charles S. Bullock III, Richard B. Russell Professor
of Political Science, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching
Professor, University of Georgia
“It’s
a rare book indeed that continues to attract even critical
attention more than sixty years after it appeared. V. O. Key’s
Southern Politics is just such a work, however, and
both its strengths and shortcomings get a thorough going over
in this lively multidisciplinary volume where contributors
not only take on Key but, occasionally, each other.”
—James C. Cobb, Spalding Distinguished Professor of
History, University of Georgia
Over sixty
years ago, political scientist V. O. Key Jr. published his
seminal work, Southern Politics in State and Nation.
Key’s book defined the field of southern politics and
remains one of the most cited and influential works in twentieth-century
political science and southern history.
In Unlocking V.O. Key Jr., prominent southern scholars
in history, political science, and southern and American studies
reconsider Key’s analysis, debating his omissions as
well as highlighting the timeless elements of his work. Charles
Reagan Wilson, Kari Frederickson, and Pearl K. Ford argue
that Key’s exclusion of religion, violence, and African
American political participation altered the field of southern
politics. Keith Gaddie and Justin Wert draw attention to Key’s
methodological innovations, while Margaret Reid questions
Key’s limited and gendered vision of the southern electorate.
Harold Stanley discusses the complexity of teaching Key in
the twenty-first century. Byron E. Shafer and Richard Johnston
argue for the role that class and the economy played in the
realignment of the South with the Republican Party, while
Dan T. Carter points to race as the driving factor in this
major shift. Susan MacManus tracks immigration trends in the
region to explain contemporary southern political behavior.
Supported with a foreword by Byron E. Shafer that provides
an overview of Key’s major contributions as a political
scientist, and concluding with Wayne Parent’s discussion
of Key and the contemporary student, Unlocking V. O. Key
Jr. is a must-read companion to the classic Southern
Politics in State and Nation.
Angie
Maxwell is the Diane D. Blair Professor of
Southern Studies and assistant professor of political science
at the University of Arkansas.
Todd
G. Shields is professor of political science
and director of the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics
and Society at the University of Arkansas.
With generous
support from the Winthrop
Rockefeller Institute and the Diane
D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society.
May
6 x 9, 285 pages
$29.95 (s) paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-961-2
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