The South, according to Goldfield, has a serious identity crisis regarding race. An example: Kentucky was a Northern state during the Civil War, yet today Todd County, Ky., holds a "Miss Confederacy" contest in which the winner is judged by her "poise, hair, hooped skirt, and answers to questions such as 'What will you do... to promote and defend Southern heritage?' " But the biggest divide is between the experiences of whites and blacks, and this provocative book raises the difficult question of how—and if—Southern history can honor the different, often deeply antithetical experiences of black and white Southerners. Goldfield (Black, White, and Southern: Race Relations and Southern Culture), professor of history at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte, carefully uncovers and dissects many aspects of Southern history—how evangelical Christianity evolved to embrace white supremacy; the role white women assumed as wives and mothers in maintaining and promoting the unequal racial status quo after the Civil War; Booker T. Washington's call to Southern blacks "to submit to segregation... in exchange for white assistance in gaining educational opportunities"—and charts the myriad ways in which, according to the author, racism has become accepted and integral to how Southern heritage is conceptualized. Goldfield's main focus, however, is in making the case that while blacks and whites have held radically different visions of it, a more unified Southern history is possible. Goldfield notes that "the danger is that both visions will reside, as do the races, in parallel universes"; he points out that while 100 Southern cities have renamed streets to honor Martin Luther King, most "run through dilapidated black neighborhoods." Drawing on a wide range of sources as well as contemporary reporting, this deftly written historical analysis takes on a difficult topic with passion, sensitivity and integrity. (Mar.)
