Southern Politics

This chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book aims to advance an analysis of the role and influence of southern members of Congress from Reconstruction to the New Deal. This approach underscores the persistent possibilities of division among southern Democrats as they struggled to find cohesion in circumstances of very considerable sectional diversity. Southern achievements, which were considerable, were secured unevenly and haltingly. Rather than assume that the cohesion of southern representatives always came easily and was persistently high, or that southern members were always wily and masterful in deploying influence in Congress, the book shows how southern security and capacity were produced over time under conditions of anxiety and uncertainty. In so doing, it also offers elements, we believe, that are vital pathways to contemporary circumstances.