Description: American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta
Brief description: Nan Elizabeth Woodruff is professor of modern United States history at Pennsylvania State University.
Review Quotes:
"Woodruff argues that the economic development of the Mississippi Delta lands in the early 20th century resembled the exploitation of African colonies by European capitalism. This involved the subjugation of a largely nonwhite labor force through the near total control of both the economic and local political systems and reflected the application of modern capital, management, and corporate organizational systems to previously underdeveloped agricultural and extractive economies. The author presents a convincing argument that the economic transformation of the Delta lands combined an enlightened and sophisticated capitalism with an oppressive and exploitive labor system." -- C.D. Wintz, CHOICE