As NewSouth prepares for the October release of journalist Geni Certain’s biography of former Congressman Glen Browder, Professor-Politician, we are proud to release two of Browder’s own books in ebook format: The South’s New Racial Politics: Inside the Race Game of Southern History and Stealth Reconstruction: An Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History.

Browder is also an ongoing columnist with the Huffington Post “Politics” section.

As Browder described in his Huffington Post column “The New Race Game of Southern Politics: How Does It Work,” his book The South’s New Racial Politics examines how Southern white and black politicians “participate in a process than can be described as biracial accommodation.” In the book, Browder theorizes that while the Southern political system is still constrained by racial problems, the end result of this “race game” is still progress for the South.

Stealth Reconstruction, written by Browder with Professor Artemesia Stanberry, reveals the “unheroic, quiet, practical, [and] biracial” work conducted by politicians during the Civil Rights Movement, which lead to greater equality and the progress in the Southern political system. The authors suggest that the Civil Rights Movement is often viewed as a “monolithic struggle between heroes and villains, depicted … in black and white”; instead they show how legislators of both races came together to move the country forward.

Geni Certain’s Professor-Politician: The Biography of Alabama Congressman Glen Browder will be available in bookstores in November. In the book, Certain recounts Browder’s journey from Alabama legislator and Secretary of State to his role as US Congressman (not to mention his stint as an Atlanta Journal sportswriter!). Certain looks at Browder’s work at that same time as a professor of political science and how this informed Browder’s politics and his work toward “good government.”

Glen Browder’s The South’s New Racial Politics and Stealth Reconstruction are available in print and ebook formats from NewSouth Books, Amazon, or your favorite bookstore. You can view an archive of Glen Browder’s columns at the Huffington Post website.

Former Alabama Congressman Glen Browder said it was an interest in the role biracial politics played in the civil rights movement that inspired his two books with NewSouth, The South’s New Racial Politics and Stealth Reconstruction. Appearing at Converse College in February alongside his Stealth Reconstruction co-author, North Carolina Central University assistant professor Artemesia Stanberry, Browder discussed the role of these lesser-known civil rights activists and helped lead a dialogue on the future of race relations. The Winston-Salem Journal covered the event:

Browder, a South Carolina native and a professor emeritus at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, said he started thinking about the role biracial politics played in the civil-rights movement. He contacted Stanberry, who worked as his congressional aide and is now a political science professor at North Carolina Central University, to help him with the project.

Said Browder: “The heroic drama involved Dr. King and Rosa Parks on one side and you had Bull Connor turning fire hoses on people and George Wallace standing in doors of universities on the other side, but it occurred to me a lot of change was not of that nature.

“There were some black leaders and white politicians who got together behind closed doors and said, ‘We have to do things differently.'”

The authors said the work of these leaders was done “stealthy” or in secret. They said there had to be a transition right after the civil-rights movement made up of leaders and politicians interested in moving the South beyond segregation in the 1970s through the ’90s.

“It had to be done stealthy because white politicians wouldn’t have been able to get elected if people knew what they were doing and black leaders couldn’t get elected at that time,” Browder said. “Civil disobedience helped to change laws in the legal system, but there was mass resistance.

“It took practical politics to help change things.”

Read the full article from the Winston-Salem Journal.

Stealth Reconstruction: The Untold Story of Southern Politics and History is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite online or retail bookseller.

The Mobile Press-Register recently reviewed Glen Browder’s The South’s New Racial Politics: Inside the Race Game of Southern History, praising his efforts in presenting his original thesis about how blacks and whites in today’s South engage in a politics that is qualitatively different from the past.

Both a political scientist and former politician, Browder argues in The South’s New Racial Politics that politicians of the two races now practice an open, sophisticated, biracial game that, arguably, means progress; but it also can bring out old-fashioned, cynical, and racist Southern ways.

“Browder’s book is not light reading, but his insights as a political scientist and an elected official are worth the reader’s effort,” said Michael Thomason of the Mobile Press-Register. “If you have to read it twice to really understand him, as I did, you will be glad you went to the trouble!”

Read the full review at the Mobile Press-Register.

The New York Times recently quoted Browder in an article surrounding Alabama democratic gubernatorial hopeful Artur Davis’s efforts to create an Obama style coalition campaign of black and white supporters in his bid to become the first black governor of Alabama.

“He’s taking a bold and risky gamble with an eye toward the general election, trying to establish himself as a new-style candidate, who is not the black candidate for the Alabama governorship,” Browder said. “The course he is taking is a roll of the dice.”

Read the full New York Times article.

Glen Browder is also the author of the NewSouth published Stealth Reconstruction: An Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History, in which he discusses the fascinating story of the unheroic, quiet, practical, biracial work of some white politicians and black leaders during the post-civil rights movement era.

The South’s New Racial Politics and Stealth Reconstruction are available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online retailer.

Glen Browder’s new book The South’s New Racial Politics received thoughtful praise in a highly positive review from the Southern Political Report. John Tures, Associate Professor of Political Science at LaGrange College, says he will be recommending the book to fellow professors and political science majors in his American Government class, and even students in his interdisciplinary American Experience course, “showing how Browder’s book is written for a wide audience.”

From the review:

In addition to the insightful observations about the region, the text provides an important launching point for what should be a national dialogue on the subject of race. As Browder points out, the South has begun to confront its past and present. Too often, I have seen evidence of one of his conclusions: such problems of race are hardly confined to this region. Other examples of racism, “the race game” and even a quiet new racial system of accommodation occur across the country, but tend to be swept under the rug by those who see, or want to see, this as a problem exclusively bedeviling the South. Rather than remain the national whipping post on the subject of intolerance, perhaps the South and its recent examples could serve as the basis for that dialogue, and teach, rather than be taught.

Read the full review at the Southern Political Report website.

Professor Browder continues his successful book tour, speaking at libraries, bookstores, civic organizations, and universities in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and D.C. For more information about his appearances, contact Lisa Harrison at NewSouth Bookss, 334-834-3556.

The South’s New Racial Politics is available directly from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.

Scholar and politician Glen Browder’s new book,The South’s New Racial Politics: Inside the Race Game of Southern History, is garnering national attention for its insight into modern race relations in southern politics.

In a recent article, The Associated Press discusses Browder’s life and work, lauding the book’s take on the current state of southern politics.

From the article:

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and a frequent contributor on TV talk shows, has read an advance copy and calls Browder’s new book “excellent.”

“What makes this book worthwhile is the combination of the perspectives of the scholar and the politician. It’s a rare combination,” he said.

Sabato said Browder’s book is important because race has been an issue since the founding of America, but few want to tackle it.

Read the full Associated Press article at the USA Today website.

Browder also recently spoke with Alabama’s Thicket magazine about his controversial work. From the Thicket article:

“The change we see in the South today was not produced by the Civil Rights Movement alone,” says Browder. “Throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s there were conscious efforts by white and black politicians and activists to work together to change the Southern political system. To a significant extent, this was done by stealth, through quiet, practical biracial politics that achieved relatively progressive ends. As a result, blacks and whites in the South now engage politically in a way that is qualitatively different than in the past. The race game is still played, but the terms have changed, and mostly for the better.”

Read the full article at the Thicket website.

The South’s New Racial Politics presents an original thesis about how blacks and whites in today’s South engage in a politics that is qualitatively different from the past. Browder, as practitioner and scholar, argues that politicians of the two races now practice an open, sophisticated, biracial game that, arguably, means progress; but it also can bring out old-fashioned, cynical, and racist Southern ways. The lesson to be learned from this interpretative analysis is that the Southern political system, while still constrained by racial problems, is more functional than ever before. Southerners perhaps can now move forward in dealing with their legacy of hard history.

Dr. Glen Browder is professor emeritus of American Democracy at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. He served as U.S. congressman, Alabama secretary of state, and Alabama legislator.

The South’s New Racial Politics is available directly from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.