312 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / 16 halftones, 4 maps
History / United States - Southern History
In Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South Jeannie Whayne employs the fascinating history of a powerful plantation owner in the Arkansas delta to recount the evolution of southern agriculture from the late nineteenth century through World War II.
Jeannie Whayne is a professor of history at the University of Arkansas and author or editor of ten books, including Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Southern Agriculture, winner of the J. G. Ragsdale Book Award.
“Crisply written and impeccably researched. Whayne had the benefit of tapping the almost unparalleled business records of Lee Wilson to assist her in recreating this compelling portrait of New South plantation agriculture. . . It is quite simply one of the most important works to arrive in southern agricultural and environmental history in recent years.”—Louisiana History
"This is a significant contribution to the literature on southern economic and labor history. . .it is a most valuable case in point of the price that plantation capitalism extracted from all its participants." —Gary T. Edwards, Arkansas State University (Agricultural History)
"In Delta Empire, Whayne brings to life both the history of [Wilson's] company and the story of the founder, and, in so doing, ensures that in the future their intertwined narratives will be remembered beyond the Arkansas Delta - indeed, beyond the lower Mississippi Valley - and become fundamental to the history of the twentieth-century South."—Peter A. Coclanis, Albert Ray Newsome Distinguished Professor of History at UNC, Chapel Hill (Arkansas Historical Quarterly)
"...wide-ranging plantation biography [that] brims with gripping scenes and anecdotes. Delta Empire provides many rich pickings for historians of the South."—Gavin Wright, William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History, Stanford University (Journal of American History)
"...this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the processes that have made the modern South."—John C. Rodrigue, the Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor of History, Stonehill College (American Historical Review)
Dr. Jeannie Whayne Speaks on Agricultural History in the Delta
Jeannie Whayne discusses "Delta Empire"
Jeannie Whayne visits KUAF to discuss her book “Delta Empire”
Found an Error? Tell us about it.
