Between God and markets : class, race, and state in the underdevelopment of the American South

Author

Shirley Ann Hollis

Date of Award

8-2000

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

Asafa Jalata

Committee Members

Thomas C. Hood, Faye V. Harrison

Abstract

This study examines the shifts that have occurred in the world-economy over the past 500 years and how they have transformed the American South's role in the world- economy and its relationships with the U.S. North and Europe. This work is premised on the argument that, in spite of the various transformations, the region's relative economic role within the world-economy has remained largely unchanged between 1620 and 1918. I have periodized the period between 1492 and 1918 CE as pertains to the South into four distinct phases, each of which was marked by a major historical event or disjuncture that had the potential of changing the trajectory of social change, and thus the region's development. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact those changes had on the region's development.

The current study is defined by three major and closely related goals. First, it seeks to critically examine how the South, in the midst of one of the world's great core economies, has been systematically underdeveloped and how particular historical processes have contributed to that phenomenon. Then, the research aims to specify the linkages between the world-economy and Southern economic and political activities that existed during each of four historical phases, particularly their relationship to the previous periods and the processes of underdevelopment. Finally, the work attempts to enhance our understanding of the world-system concept of "reincorporation" and why, at major historical disjunctures, policies regarding the South acted to deepen rather than weaken existing structural and institutional barriers to radical changes.

Evidence accumulated in this study suggests that the systematic underdevelopment of the US. South began with the region's first incorporation into the world-economy beginning with European 'discovery’ and conquest. Furthermore, even when the structures of accumulation were weakened at various points in the region's history particularly with American independence and post-Civil War reunification incorporation was subsequently intensified. Consequently, rather than opportunities being extended to most of the region's population at key junctures, structures of accumulation were increasingly controlled by a small elite group and the processes of underdevelopment were strengthened and intensified.

Recommended Citation

Hollis, Shirley Ann, "Between God and markets : class, race, and state in the underdevelopment of the American South. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2000.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/8296