---
product_id: 5364286
title: "The Mind of the South"
brand: "w.j. cashbertram wyatt-brown"
price: "$1004"
currency: MXN
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/5364286-the-mind-of-the-south
store_origin: MX
region: Mexico
---

# The Mind of the South

**Brand:** w.j. cashbertram wyatt-brown
**Price:** $1004
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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## Description

The Mind of the South

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Informative but taxing on the mind
  

*by J***N on Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2020*

W.J. Cash explains that the “body” of the antebellum “Old South” of agriculture transformed into the post-Reconstruction “New South” of industrialism (l). However, the “mind” of the South remained constant throughout this transformation. Cash claims that the Union’s victory in the Civil War was illusory because afterwards white southerners strengthened their beliefs in white superiority and mastery of the black population (103-106). Thus, the northern “Yankee, seeing his victory brought to nothing,” attempted to reclaim triumph over the white southerner (105). Cash’s thesis is that although white southerners changed their occupations and infrastructure after the Civil War to feature rapid industrial “Progress,” white southerners became more stubborn in their belief of white superiority and racism towards blacks. Cash uses his knowledge and personal experiences of living in the south to articulate his interpretation of the southern mind throughout American history up to the book’s original publication in 1941. Most white southerners despised northerners’ progressive politics, labor unionism, and public education. Worse still, during the Reconstruction Era, white southerners competed with black southerners for wage labor and were on an equal social level. Thus, from this socioeconomic desperation of racial equality, white southerners adopted the “Yankeedoms” of industrialism after Reconstruction, especially with the expanding cotton mills (156-162). However, the cotton mill owners only hired white laborers. Therefore, not only did the South’s post-Reconstruction industrialism result in significant wealth for the mill owners, it also increased the standard of living for many white southerners who no longer had to compete with blacks for jobs. Consequently, industrial “Progress” had elevated the common white southerners’ social and economic status above that of blacks. White southerners had “entirely removed from all direct competition” the possibility of social equality between the landless white southerners and blacks, as was the case during the antebellum period in the “Old South” (214). Cash mentions that many southern blacks moved north to fulfill the labor shortage in the industrial factories that hired blacks for employment. Due to his southern perspective, however, Cash focuses on those blacks who remained in the South. In regards to the mass migration of southern blacks to northern cities, Cash only emphasizes the social and economic effects on the South. He does not fully consider the southern blacks who left the South as southerners. Furthermore, he analyzes the “pull” motivations for southern blacks who sought wage labor in northern cities but avoids the issue of the “push” factors for southern blacks who left the South to avoid racist discrimination and violence from white southerners. The primary social effect was that racial segregation in the south, coupled with the migration of blacks to northern cities, resulted to “feed the white man’s fears” of blacks, most violently expressed through lynching. As a result, white southerners increased their racist prejudice and discrimination towards blacks who remained in the south (305-319). Perhaps this avoidance is due to Cash’s focus on the South or perhaps this is due to him being a white southerner, but Cash is unclear on the motivations of the southern blacks who migrated north. Rather, Cash emphasizes the social and economic effects on the white southerner. Although the race-based plantation system of the “Old South” elevated common white southerners above black slaves, the slaves were the recipients of a paternalistic system in which slaveholders provided the necessities for their slaves, including food, clothing, and shelter. Although plantation owners exploited white southerners for their labor, white southerners were by “extension a member of the dominant class” because they were white and the slaves were black (38-39). After Reconstruction, cotton mill owners utilized a similar paternalistic system but substituted white southerners as the recipients of paternalism in lieu of blacks. For example, the wealthy cotton mill owners allocated “store credit” to southern white mill workers. The mill workers could only spend this credit at the mill store at a price that was higher than retail, which provided the mill owners with additional profits. Therefore, the mill owners provided landless southern whites with the necessities not only to escape “from competition with the blacks” but also to have full time employment under the paternalism of the wealthy southern mill owners (175-178). However, the mill owners had to convince the southern whites to live within this exploitative and paternalistic system. Southern Democratic politicians appealed to the white southerners’ unique susceptibility to demagoguery with fiery rhetoric that distracted the southern whites from their poverty and dependency upon the mill owners (251). Political bosses bribed southern white voters to vote as the mill owners wished while demagogues aimed resentment towards the “Yankee” and hatred for blacks (246-247). However, Cash implies that only white southerners were attracted to demagogues. Northerners and blacks also appealed to prejudice rhetoric and popular appeals, evidenced by Robert La Follette, William Jennings Bryan, and Marcus Garvey. In this case, human beings, not just southerners, are hedonistic and prefer politicians who promise favorable policies. Cash’s prose focuses on the social, economic, and political events that shed light on the southerners’ mind throughout American history, stretching from colonialism to the end of the Great Depression. He expresses a tremendous skill for writing literature and a comprehensive knowledge of the history of the South. His work acts as both an explanation of the “Lost Cause” ideology and as a challenge to it. Moreover, he challenges white southerners to address their problems and to attempt to fix them. However, Cash avoids using footnotes to cite his sources for statistics and quotes and rarely cites the information in the text. Despite its shortcomings, Cash’s interpretation of the white southerners’ mind is a remarkable piece of literature that allows readers to understand the southern way of life.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Emigre requirement!
  

*by S***. on Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2023*

Anyone who was not born in the South but lives there now should read this book. It explains EVERYTHING.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Essential start to understanding southern mentality
  

*by B***N on Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2015*

If you want to understand the mentality of southerners, this is where you start. The book is not perfect. It is oddly written, makes sometimes flawed arguments, and is somewhat out-dated. Nevertheless, it makes several key arguments that are central to understanding southern culture.The book is divided into three sections: antebellum, Reconstruction-to-1900, and the 1900-1940 era. The first section is the most fascinating, debunking the idea of southern aristocracy. The second is the most compelling argument about the origins of southern anger and frustration surrounding the end of slavery. The third section is the weakest and has the least historical hindsight, but tries to show how that anger of common whites became so pervasive.Cash introduces a couple concepts, first suggesting that poor whites were just as keen on slavery as wealthy whites because slavery lifted them up from the bottom rung of society. Second, he suggests that there is a continuity in the social elites of the south, from the "aristocracy" to the businessmen of the Gilded Age.The book is very much written in a conversational tone. It's highly readable in that sense, but sometimes its arguments have to be plucked out of that. Still, this is highly recommended as a *start* to understanding the mind of the south.

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*Last updated: 2026-02-16*