White Southerners Paperback - 1986

Originally published in 1970 as part of the series Ethnic Groups in Comparative Perspective, White Southerners is widely regarded as a classic in the sociology and history of the American South. In it, Lewis M. Killian, himself a white Southerner and a distinguished sociologist of race relations, advances the provocative and influential argument that white Southerners can be understood as a distinct American ethnic group, shaped by a shared regional identity, history, and culture that sets them apart from other white Americans. Drawing on decades of research into race relations and Southern society, Killian examines the formation and persistence of Southern white identity, its relationship to the broader struggles over race and civil rights, and the tensions between regional loyalty and national belonging. This revised edition includes a new preface and a substantial new concluding chapter that extends the analysis through the period from 1970 to 1984, bringing the study up to date with the transformed landscape of the post-civil rights South. Essential reading for students and scholars of American race relations, regional identity, and the sociology of ethnicity, White Southerners remains a foundational text in Southern studies.