'To know the history of the American South, within its own context, is to come to terms with one of modern history's most astonishing, polarizing, and illuminating stories. In these 24 lectures, you'll relive the unforgettable drama of the South, from the rise and fall of the slave South to the making of the New South, examining the full scope of a historical epoch that still affects life in the United States today, through essential topics such as: The Forging of the Slave South. Follow the settling of the Southern colonies, and the economic conditions that made slavery a profitable business model; see how the slave economy expanded following the American Revolution; Southern Prosperity and Culture--Witness the creation of the large-scale cotton economy that emblemized the South; learn how the enslaved lived and worked, and the ways in which slaves rebelled against a dehumanizing system; Breakdown of the Union--Examine the events that marked the disintegrating relations between North and South, from the emancipation of the Northern states to the divisive presidential election of 1860; Emancipation and the Experiment of Reconstruction--Relive the era of Reconstruction, and the bitter conflict between the North's efforts to remake the South and white Southerners' actions to reassert their prewar power; and Segregation and the New South--Observe how political and legal means were employed to separate the races and maintain white supremacy; explore how the New South gave rise to religious and musical expression of globe-spanning impact. In A New History of the American South, you'll take a richly detailed excursion into the story and the enduring legacy of the South, in a historical inquiry unique in its scope. In Professor Ayers's words, 'We cannot understand the United States if we do not understand the South, which has played such an outsized role in the history of our country.'