Ayers, Edward L. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

In this work, Ayers examines the South of the late nineteenth century, after Reconstruction has run its course. Central to the development of this New South is race relations, viewed in the context of contemporary society, politics, and economics. Ayers states his initial goal as to simply understand what everyday life was like in this era. Moving from one perspective to another in the course of the book, Ayers to a large degree lets these common men speak for themselves in the pages; perspective lies at the centre of this methodological approach. Out of this exposition comes evidence of the evolution of politics and economics as the New South begins to create for itself a new social order following the withdrawal of the final Union troops from Southern soil in 1877. At the centre of the story is the rise and fall of the Populist movement in the 1890s. This decade is crucial, in that it also saw the transformation of government in Southern states to one based on white supremacy. This great changeover came after the rural men of the South made their grasp for their share of the promise thought to be a component of the New South ideology; this last attempt was in the Populist movement, yet the movement failed after less than a decade. When Ayers examines cultural history, he finds that change did not displace the Old South nor offer stability for the New South. The 1890s was witness to a high degree of violence and oppression, revealed most recognizably in disfranchisement and the birth of Jim Crowism.