A Rage for Order: Black/White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation

The Crucible of Race, a major reinterpretation of black-white relations in the South, was widely acclaimed on publication and compared favorably to two of the seminal books on Southern history: Wilbur J. Cash's The Mind of the South and C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Representing 20 years of research and writing on the history of the South, The Crucible of Race explores the large topic of Southern race relations for a span of a century and a half. Oxford is pleased to make available an abridgement of this parent volume: A Rage for Order preserves all the theme lines that were advanced in the original volume and many of the individual stories. As in Crucible of Race, Williamson here confronts the awful irony that the war to free blacks from slavery also freed racism. He examines the shift in the power base of Southern white leadership after 1850 and recounts the terrible violence done to blacks in the name of self-protection. This condensation of one of the most important interpretations of Southern history is offered as a means by which a large audience can grasp the essentials of black-white relations--a problem that persists to this day and one with which we all must contend--North and South, black and white.

Review :
"Excellent--I am adopting this for a course on the New South."--L. Musslewhite, Cameron University "Excellent analysis of race relations--very comprehensive in its consideration of both the black and white sides of race relations."--W. Marvin Dulaney, University of Texas, Arlington On The Crucible of Race: "The most conspicuous landmark of scholarship in an important field...a deeper and more thorough penetration of the endless complexities of the subject than any every attempted before."--C. Vann Woodward, The New Republic "A major reinterpretation of black-white relations since the Civil War...Williamson has deepened our understanding of [Southern history's] tragic dimensions and enduring legacies."--The New York Times Book Review "A full and fresh overview of black-white relations in the South...Williamson tells his...story with rich detail and surrounds it with information and insights on an array of related topics."--Philadelphia Inquirer "A remarkable mixture of careful, empirically based historical work and free-wheeling cultural commentary in the vein of W. J. Cash and other imaginative writers on the Southern psyche."--George M. Frederickson, The New York Review of Books "A stimulating and controversial book...[A] significant contribution toward our understanding of a fundamental American riddle."--Los Angeles Times "One of the best books I've read in the last ten years. Williamson sets the rise of Southern segregation within the region's obsession with the sense of place, is less powerful in psychological than it was in physical terms. He manages to do this without losing himself and his narrative in a mass of pseudo-therapeutic speculations. I deeply appreciate this book and look forward to using it with my students this fall."--David Stricklin, Tulane University "Excellent for upper-division students."--Kathryn Olmsted, University of California, Davis