Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.1 | The History Cooperative

A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948. By Bryant Simon. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. xvi, 345 pp. Cloth, $49.95, isbn 0-8078-2401-1. Paper, $19.95, isbn 0-8078-4704-6.)

Bryant Simon argues in this well-written book that between 1910 and the 1950s, South Carolina's white textile workers shifted in their political orientation at two decisive times. During the Great Depression, white millhands exchanged their fathers' aggressive racialism for a class-based politics that looked to government for redress of shop floor grievances and economic tribulations. In the World War II era, however, African American activism and growing federal opposition to racial discrimination triggered a reversion to race-centered politics. Simon's wide-ranging research, his nuanced understanding of the interactions among race, class, and gender, and his thoughtful challenge to notions of southern working-class exceptionalism make this book an important contribution. . . .

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