Government 333 – Southern Politics
Fall 2016
Dr. Phillip Stone
MWF 8:30-9:20, Main 124
Office: Archives, Sandor Teszler Library
Phone: 597-4313
E-mail: stonerp@wofford.edu
Web page http://sites.wofford.edu/stonerp
Office Hours: I’ll be available from 1:30 to 3:00 Monday-Thursday in my office in the college archives, or by appointment. E-mail or call to check.
Course Description:
This course will examine the history, culture, and current trends in politics in the American South. We will survey the region’s history while examining various topics related to southern politics and recent political trends. The course will consist of readings, discussion, lectures, and presentations by members of the seminar.
Course Overview
In this course, the students will examine what, if anything, makes politics in the southern region of the United States distinct from that of the rest of the country. We will consider how politics in the South have affected politics in the nation at large. Students will become familiar with the themes of southern political history, with changes that have happened in southern politics since World War II, and with current affairs in the region, and each student will demonstrate that familiarity in discussion and in written assignments. Each student will be able to discuss recent political history, trends, and current affairs in the region and in at least one of the eleven southern states. Each individual will be expected to relate the themes and trends that the entire class is exploring in southern politics to a state.
Civic Learning outcomes
Students will develop an understanding of key political and social issues in the American South today.
Students will become knowledgeable about the development of politics in the American South and of the transformation of political structures.
Students will analyze how political power has been achieved, maintained, and used
In their projects, students will develop and share knowledge about how political change has occurred in one state in the American South, and will share what issues drive politics in that state with the class.
Students will engage with the role race, voting rights, voting restrictions, political participation, political structures, demographic change, and economic development have had on the development of public policy in the South.
Students will be evaluated both on their participation in class and on their written work.
Course Format
The course will consist of a mixture of lectures, discussion of readings, and presentations by members of the class.
Course Requirements
Your participation is vital for the success of the course. You’ll need to come to class each day prepared to discuss the reading assignments. You will occasionally have presentations to make to the class.
The written work will include four essays of various types, one of which will be a research project on the state you’ve taken responsibility for covering. You will be expected to help lead the presentation and discussion on politics in one state.
Course Policies:
Please silence cell phones in class, and please do not text in class.
Statement for Academic Integrity: http://www.wofford.edu/studentLife/honorCode.pdf
The college’s honor code governs your work in this course.
Attendance: It is hard to participate and learn if you don’t attend class. Missing more than 3 classes will negatively impact your final grade.
Late work: Assignments are due on the dates indicated. Turning in work late will result in a penalty of half a letter grade for each day the assignment is late.
Grading: Your grade will be determined by the following method.
Papers 1-2 40%
Oral Presentation 10%
Research Paper 20%
Final Exam/paper 30%
Papers will be submitted through Moodle and Pathbrite
Assigned text: Michael Perman, Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South. UNC Press, 2009.
Other reading assignments are on Moodle or on reserve in the library. See below for each class’s reading assignments and discussion topics. Course readings and assignments will be updated on Moodle and the web version of the syllabus as well.
Newspaper assignment: I will ask you to monitor a major newspaper in your assigned state on the web. I’ll provide instructions about this in class. I will ask you to make occasional reports that I’ll review and perhaps call on you to share with the class.
Schedule of lectures, readings, and discussion assignments: (I reserve the right to make adjustments as necessary, with notice.)
September 5: Introduction, course overview, themes
Background and Development of Southern Political Identity
September 7: Lecture: Southern Politics in the colonial and antebellum era.
Read: Perman, Chapters 1-2
Select states for which you will be responsible – for researching and presenting to the class.
September 9: Lecture: Southern Politics in the Civil War and Reconstruction Era
Reading: Perman, Chapter 5-6
September 12: Lecture: Disfranchisement and Southern Politics in the Populist Era
Brief Discussion: Disfranchisement and Creating the Solid South
Reading: Kousser, Shaping of Southern Politics, chapter 8 (Moodle)
Perman, Chapter 7
September 14: Lecture: Southern Politics in the Progressive Era
Reading; Perman, Chapter 8-9
September 16: Library Session (in the classroom)
http://libguides.wofford.edu/gov333
(Select newspapers, look for books and resources on state topics)
September 19: Lecture: Southern Politics in the New Deal
Reading: Perman, Chapter 10
Biles, Southern Politics and the New Deal (Moodle)
September 21: Lecture: The re-racialization of Southern Politics
Reading: Key, Southern Politics in State and Nation, chapter 1 and your state chapter in Key (reserve and Moodle)
Perman, Chapter 11
September 23:
September 23 – First Essay Due by 5:00
September 26: Lecture: The Rise of Massive Resistance 1948-1960
Reading: Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt, chapter 5 (Moodle)
September 28: Discussion: Race, the central theme of southern politics?
Reading: Perman, Chapter 12 (Frederickson and Key will be helpful also)
September 30: Lecture: Suburbanization and Southern Politics, 1945-65
Reading: Black and Black, Politics and Society in the South, Chapter 2, Industrialization and Urbanization (Moodle)
October 3: The Crisis of the 1960s: Civil Rights and Voting Rights
Reading: Perman, chapter 13.
October 5: 1968, George Wallace, and the Southernization of American Politics
Reading: Carter, The Politics of Rage (Moodle)
October 7: Lecture: The Post-Civil Rights era
Readings: Lassiter, The Silent Majority, “Suburbanization of Southern Politics” (Moodle)
Your state chapter in Bass and De Vries (Reserve)
October 10: Adjusting to New Realities – Biracial Coalitions
Readings: Perman, Chpt. 14
October 12: Lecture/Discussion: Reagan and The South in the 1980s
Readings: Black and Black, Rise of Southern Republicans: Reagan’s Realignment of White Southerners (Moodle)
Your state chapter in Lamis (Reserve)
Second Essay Due by 5:00 on October 13.
October 14 – Fall Break, no class
Overall Themes in Contemporary Southern Politics
(Some things may shift a little after this point)
October 17: Lecture/Discussion: Voting Rights, Reapportionment and the Roots of the Republican Surge
Readings: David Canon, Race, Redistricting, and Representation (Moodle)
Seth McKee, Republican Ascendancy in Southern US House Elections, Chapter 3 (Moodle)
October 19: Lecture/Discussion: Lecture/Discussion Gender and Politics
Cobb, “I’m Not a Feminist, but…” Chapter 9 of The South in America (Moodle)
October 21: Lee Atwater, Boogie Man
October 24: Discussion Religion and Politics
Reading: Feldman, Status Quo Society and the Rope of Religion (Moodle)
State by State Reports
October 26: Alabama: The shadow of George Wallace
October 28: Georgia: Atlanta and the Talmadges
October 31: Louisiana: The Seamy Side of Democracy
November 2 Mississippi: It’s all Black and White
November 4 (No class)
November 7: South Carolina:
Election Day predictions
November 9: North Carolina: Progressive or Not?
Election Day Wrapup
November 11: Virginia: The new purple state?
November 14: Tennessee: Mountains and Memphis
November 16: Arkansas: Bill and Mike
November 18: Florida: Is this the South?
November 21 Texas: The Westernmost Confederate State?
Research Paper Due by 5:00 on November 22.
November 23, 25 – Thanksgiving: No Class
Contemporary Politics
November 28: Recent Trends – The South in the 1990s
Reading: Perman, Chpt. 15
Lamis, Southern Politics in the 1990s, Chpt. 13
Applebome, Dixie Rising, chapter 1 (Moodle)
November 30:
December 2: What do political ads say about the South? (submit ads by early evening on December 1)
December 5: Lecture/Discussion: The South in the 2000s – the Democratic Collapse
Bullock, “Southern Politics in the 21st Century,”
The South in Red and Purple: Southernized Republicans, Diverse Democrats (5 Big Things You Should Know About the South for this Election) by Ferrel Guillory (e-reserve) or this link
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/southern_cultures/v018/18.3.guillory.html
December 7: Lecture/Discussion: The Future of Southern Politics: Why does it all matter?
Reading: McKee, The Past, Present, and Future of Southern Politics (Southern Cultures, Fall 2012) Moodle or this link: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/southern_cultures/v018/18.3.mckee.html
Black and Black, The Vital South, Chpt 13: As The South Goes (e-reserve)
December 9: Any Revisions to the Research Paper are due
December 16, 9:00 – 12:00 Final Exam.
Appendix – Assignment Information
Newspaper Assignment
I would like for you to monitor a major newspaper in your assigned state on the web. I will ask you to make regular verbal and perhaps written reports about what’s going on in your state.
Summarize, in a few sentences, what’s going on in your state, based on your reading in your newspaper. Ideally, your comments will focus on politics, but if other major events are going on there, it’s OK to comment on those, too. (In the past, students covering Alabama always make comments about football, it seems).
First and Second Essays – which will be due on September 24 and October 13 – will be a multi-page essay. I’ll give you a question or prompt before the essay is due, and you will be able to use course materials (but not each other) to answer the question, in a typed essay of about 5 pages.
The state project/presentation:
Some of your individual readings will focus on one state. During the four weeks when we are studying each state, I will ask the students who are studying each state to lead the class that day. Who have the major political players been, what are the state’s demographics, what has that state’s recent political history been like. After your introductory comments, I’ll fill in some more details about the state’s history and politics.
The Research Project
On November 22, you will submit a research paper/term paper/whatever we will call it on politics in your state. You may model your project on one of the chapters in Key, Bass, Lamis, Bullock, or the like. Your paper should summarize the major events, personalities, and unique factors about politics in your state. See if you can figure out what drives politics in that state. Though you can reach back into the past for references or introductory material, try to focus on the period from the 1960s forward.
The paper should be at least 10 pages, cite your sources using one of the standard citation manuals (I use Turabian, but you may use another if you are more used to it).