History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie: Scholarship, Activism, and Wayne Flynt in the Modern South

The essays in this volume explore significant aspects of society and culture in the recent South that reflect and amplify themes that have dominated much of the scholarship and activism of historian Wayne Flynt. Recently retired from the faculty of Auburn University and described as "a teacher of the highest order," Flynt differed in important respects from most of his professional colleagues (p. xi). His cultural and familial connections with the South's poor whites and his strong commitment to evangelical Protestantism (he is an ordained Baptist minister) significantly influenced his scholarly interests and his public critiques of policies in Alabama that persistently ignored the needs of the disadvantaged segments of the state's population. Both his advocacy of social and political reforms and the challenges posed by his scholarship to conventional historical wisdom sparked considerable debate and criticism.