Monday, January 17, 2011

The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Whilst down South I decided to read a book about the South.  Specifically about Jim Crow and desegregation.  My brother is a public history major and specializes in Louisiana history - so he had quite a few books to choose from.  The one I picked The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward is essentially a series of essays published as a short history.  It was very readable, and his argument was convincing, but it is not in any way an introduction to the subject. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know enough about major events in Southern U.S. history to totally follow the names, events, and theories that Woodward referenced throughout.  

But I did like this quote:

"When a scientific theory ceases to account for the observed facts of common experience, however, it would seem to be time to discard the theory." (109).