Unlocking V.O. Key Jr.: "Southern Politics" for the Twenty-First Century

Foreword

Unlocking V.O. Key Jr. Southern Politics for the Twenty-First Century Edited by Angie Maxwell and Todd G. Shields THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PRESS FAYETTEVILLE ■ 2011 Copyright © 2011 by The University of Arkansas Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN-10: 1-55728-961-1 ISBN-13: 978-1-55728-961-2 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1 Text design by Ellen Beeler ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Unlocking V.O. Key Jr. : "southern politics" for the twenty-first century / edited by Angie Maxwell and Todd G. Shields. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-55728-961-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-55728-961-1 1. Key, V. O. (Valdimer Orlando), 1908–1963. Southern politics in state and nation—Congresses. 2. Southern States—Politics and government—21st century—Congresses. 3. Political culture—Southern States—Congresses. I. Maxwell, Angie, 1978– II. Shields, Todd G., 1968– F216.2.U65 2011 975'.044--dc23 2011017765 This book was made possible by the support of the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. Contents Foreword: The Master, the Acolytes, and the Study of American Politics vii ■ Byron E. Shafer Introduction: Unlocking V. O. Key Jr. xix ■ Todd Shields and Angie Maxwell Part I: The Missing Pieces of Southern Politics in State and Nation CHAPTER 1. The Morality-Driven South: Populists, Prohibitionists, Religion, and V. O. Key Jr.’s Southern Politics 3 ■ Charles Reagan Wilson CHAPTER 2. V. O. Key Jr.’s Missing Link: Black Southern Political Culture and Development 23 ■ Pearl Ford Dowe CHAPTER 3. World War II, White Violence, and Black Politics in V. O. Key Jr.’s Southern Politics 39 ■ Kari Frederickson Part II: The Impact of Southern Politics on the Discipline CHAPTER 4. Unlocking Social Constructions in Southern Politics: V. O. Key Jr.’s Thin Democracy 57 ■ Margaret Reid CHAPTER 5. Before KKV, V. O. Key Jr.: Southern Politics and Social Science Methodology 77 ■ Ronald Keith Gaddie and Justin J. Wert CHAPTER 6. Reflections on Reading V. O. Key Jr.’s Southern Politics: Race, Politics, and Economics 105 ■ Harold W. Stanley Part III: The Post-Key South CHAPTER 7. More than Race: Conservatism in the White South since V. O. Key Jr. 129 ■ Dan T. Carter CHAPTER 8. Partisan Change in the Post-Key South 161 ■ Byron E. Shafer and Richard Johnston CHAPTER 9. V. O. Key Jr.’s Southern Politics: Demographic Changes Will Transform the Region; In-migration and Generational Shifts Speed Up the Process 185 ■ Susan A. MacManus CONCLUSION: Evaluating V. O. Key Jr. and Advancing Our Understanding of Southern Politics 207 ■ Wayne Parent Index 219 vi ■ Contents Foreword The Master, the Acolytes, and the Study of American Politics Byron E. Shafer They cannot look out far, They cannot look in deep. But when was that ever a bar To any watch they keep? —Robert Frost, Taken Singly Valdimir Orlando Key Jr. was arguably the most eminent political scientist of his day, certainly the most eminent Americanist. He earned this position through seminal research on an array of topics at the center of the American politics syllabus. Little that came from his pen failed to find its way into the subsequent study of American politics. Yet there were four major areas where his work should rightly be viewed as ground-breaking: political parties, electoral change, public opinion, and, last but not least, southern politics. Every one of these areas was distinguished by the focus on a grand normative question , the provision of a main theoretical insight, and the amassing of meticulous empirical detail. Contra Robert Frost, he knew how to look both “out far” and “in deep.” So, Key deserves a look back, most especially in a volume aimed at unlocking—rescuing and restoring—his thought. Yet it is in the nature of seminal thinkers that a substantial part of their impact comes by way of the acolytes, those who see something attractive in the work of the master and set out to extend it. In truth, this is the way that knowledge progresses in a successfully institutionalized scholarly discipline. In all likelihood...