Description:
In Dixie's Great War: World War I and the American South, acclaimed historian John M. Giggie uncovers the profound ways the First World War transformed Southern life. Moving beyond the battlefield, this engaging study examines how war reshaped the region's politics, race relations, religion, economy, and culture. Through compelling stories and insightful analysis, Giggie reveals how Southern communities experienced the global conflict and how the war accelerated changes that would reverberate throughout the twentieth century. Essential reading for students, scholars, and history enthusiasts, this book offers a fresh perspective on World War I and its lasting impact on the American South.
Review Quotes:
"By bringing together leading scholars of the period to share their insights, this fascinating collection develops a nuanced range of information about the war and its effects on the South and southerners. The war's immediate and long-term consequences for the United States were profound, but relatively few works have explored the war's consequences on the home front. This collection makes an important contribution to our understanding of the war in the South." --David A. Davis, author of World War I and Southern Modernism
"The volume does an excellent job highlighting the ways the war experience transpired in the South and how the South influenced the larger national whole, though the scholars emphasize that they do not find an entirely distinctive southern experience. Indeed, the contributors add to the historiography by showing how the war helped flatten regional distinctions." --The Journal of Southern History, Vol. LXXXVIII
"The contributions to Dixie's Great War. . . are intended to follow closely what the participants actually said, and how they responded to what audience members said. The goal was to preserve all the spontaneity of historical give-and-take, with the object of showing what Jay Winter considers 'a glimpse of how historians operate.'"--The Alabama Review