Examines how the south became the 'Solid South' for the Democratic Party and how that solidarity began to crack with the advent of American involvement in World War II. Glenn Feldman argues that the history of the solid Democratic south is actually marked by several ironies that involve a concern with the fundamental nature of southern society and culture and the central place that race and allied types of cultural conservatism have played in ensuring regional distinctiveness and continuity across time and various partisan labels.