University Press of Florida Nation Within a Nation: The American South and the Federal Government

From the Constitutional Convention to the Civil War to the civil rights movement, the South has exerted an outsized influence on Ameri¬can government and history while being distinctly anti-government. It continues to do so today with Tea Party politics. Southern states have profited immensely from federal projects, tax expenditures, and public spending, yet the region’s relationship with the central government and the courts can, at the best of times, be described as contentious. Nation within a Nation features cutting-edge work by lead scholars in the fields of history, political science, and human geography, who examine the causes real and perceived for the South’s perpetual state of rebellion, which remains one of its most defining characteristics. Review "The chapters--individually and collectively--make a powerful case for southern distinctiveness and illustrate the southernization of the relationship between non-southern states and the federal government."--Journal of American Studies "The book is an interesting read for those concerned with the history of the South, but also for those interested in how newer issues such as the US-Mexican border and criminal justice policies fit within the region's history."--New Books in Political Science "Genuinely transnational in scope. . . . Make[s] significant contributions to our understanding of the relationship between the South and the federal government."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society About the Author Glenn Feldman is professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Painting Dixie Red: When, Where, Why, and How the South Became Republican and Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South.