With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

J. David Woodard: The Role of Church, Military and Tradition

J. David Woodard teaches political science at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. He is the author of "The New Southern Politics."

The South is more conservative because, in the words of C. Vann Woodward, it was “the only part of the nation to experience the pain of a military defeat, occupation by a victorious external foe, and subsequent domination by its former servants.” Robert Penn Warren wrote that, “That kind of defeat, gives the past great importance.” Conservatives love the past, never more so than in the South....

Related Links

Read entire article at NYT