"THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN CONSERVATISM AND THE POLITICS OF RACE IN AMERICA"

Christopher Bonastia, Southern Stalemate: Five Years without Public Education in Prince Edward County, Virginia (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2012) (From the bookjacket: "In1959, Virginia's Prince Edward County closed its public schools rather than obey a court order to desegregate. For five years, black children were left to fend for themselves while white children went to newly created private schools and the courts decided if the county could continue to deny its citizens public education. Investigating this remarkable and nearly forgotten story of local, state, and federal political confrontation, Christopher Bonastia recounts the tests of wills that pitted resolute African Americans against equally steadfast white segregationists in a battle over the future of public education in America. . . ." "Artfully exploring the lessons of the Prince Edward saga, Southern Stalemate unearths new insights about the evolution of modern conservatism and the politics of race in America.").