America's Johannesburg

Download or read book America's Johannesburg written by Bobby M. Wilson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No American city symbolizes the black struggle for civil rights more than Birmingham, Alabama. In this critical analysis of why Birmingham became such a focal point, Bobby M. Wilson argues that AlabamaOs path to industrialism differed significantly from that in the North and Midwest. True to its antebellum roots, no other industrial city in the United States would depend so much upon the exploitation of black labor so early in its development as Birmingham. A persuasive exploration of the links between AlabamaOs slaveholding order and the subsequent industrialization of the state, WilsonOs study demonstrates that arguments based on classical economics fail to take into account the ways in which racial issues influenced the rise of industrial capitalism.