Trasformazione o scomparsa del “sistema della piantagione” nel sud postbellico

Recenti interpretazioni della storiografia americana

Abstract

Contemporary historiography on the South of the United States is mainly focused on the key problems of change and continuity of the plantation system after the Civil War. This essay traces the debate which originated by C. Vann Woodward's theory of discontinuity as it developed in the "new social history" and "new economic history" schools of thought. Although these schools used different methodologies, they did reach some agreement in emphasizing processes of continuity within the former planters' economic and social system.