Dr. Melcher's Class, Race, and the US South Is Published

Combining labor history, southern history, and theoretical critiques of mainstream conceptualizations of racism, Class, Race, and the US South emphasizes the working class as the primary driver of both progressive and reactionary political and societal change, particularly with regard to race. As Dr. Melcher demonstrates in the chapter "White Supremacy as a Decommodification Strategy," drawing on the work of oft-neglected mid-century Black sociologists, racial inequality is most fruitfully interpreted as a direct consequence of the incentive structures inherent to capitalism. The work thoroughly critiques contemporary en vogue theories of race from so-called "white working-class" literature, to the burgeoning field of "racial capitalism," while offering a comprehensive alternative.