Bullock and Rozell have produced a unique edited book on southern politics. The editors have pulled together a series of case studies on each of the southern states that highlight how politics has changed in the modern era. The editors suggest that the southern states have diverged away from the rest of the country and have lost their cherished position in the American political system. Themes of religion, race, realignment, and demographic change appear through each unit. The contributors of the various chapters have done an excellent job of highlighting how southern political systems are responding to change in the country and within their own states, particularly with regard to Latinos and Hispanics. The strength of this volume is that each case study is data rich and the analysis is timely. . . .[T]he individual case studies should be required reading for any research project on specific states. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty.

Choice Reviews

The 5th edition of The New Politics of the Old South covers all the "new" trends, data and research while maintaining the high quality of the "old" editions. Bullock and Rozell have brought together another superior team of authors who keep the writing uniformly crisp and the conclusions uniformly thoughtful and thought provoking. The overall theme of the 5th edition is that the Republican and Democratic parties have switched places in the south (although the new GOP is not quite as dominant as the Dixiecrats of old) but that the south, ironically, is still out of step with the rest of the country since Democrats have emerged as the dominant party in most other regions. This book is strongly recommended for students, researchers and the general public alike as it is that rare work that achieves a perfect balance of cutting edge scholarship and accessible, and entertaining, storytelling. V.O. Key would have loved this book – more importantly, so will you!

Aubrey Jewett