Session Abstract

Gavin Wright of Stanford University is arguably the dean of economic historians of the U.S.  South.   In dozens of articles and essays and four  major books, he has over the past forty years helped both to define and to set the terms of debate regarding  the region's economic history in the  nineteenth and twentieth centuries.    In 2013 Wright published a path-breaking new book, Sharing the Prize: The Economics of  the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South ( Harvard University Press), wherein he provided  the first systematic analysis  of the economic impact of the Civil Rights Revolution on the South and on all of the groups  living in the region.  The book has received a great deal of publicity and scholars are just beginning to wrestle with its many important findings and implications.  In this roundtable discussion, we have assembled a stellar and diverse group of scholars from history, economics, and law to offer assessments of Wright's book--its contributions, strengths, and weaknesses.  Gavin Wright has agreed to comment on these assessments.  We believe that the session--designed as a roundtable so as to encourage a maximum amount of discussion and audience participation--will appeal to a broad array  of AHA attendees in fields such as African American history, economic  history, the history of the U.S. South, modern U.S. history, and political economy.