American Hegemony and the Irony of C. Vann Woodward's "The Irony of Southern History"

Abstract

The noted historian C. Vann Woodward made an influential contribution to the understanding of Southern identity through his essays "The Search for Southern Identity" and "The Irony of Southern History." Woodward argued that what he considered to be the Southern experience of defeat, humiliation, and impotence in the face of intractable social problems set the South apart from the American national self-concept of a successful, prosperous, and victorious people. In the face of potentially dangerous entanglements abroad, Woodward concluded that the lessons of Southern history would be salutary if heeded by national leaders. The purpose of this article is to analyze Woodward's argument through the application of the framework of internal orientalism to reveal the ironies that underlie Woodward's assumptions, particularly with regard to the influence of the political hegemony of the United States and the cultural hegemony of the internal orientalist production of the South. Next, the parallels between the contemporary period and the time during which Woodward wrote his essays are assessed, revealing that Woodward's description of the position of the U.S. in the world is remarkably similar to mainstream post 9-11 rhetoric. A content analysis of George W. Bush's radio addresses shows that the national myths of innocence, virtue, success, and victory still have currency, followed by an examination of "Southern" critiques of U.S. foreign policy. These critiques do not employ the vision of Southern identity set forth by Woodward, and the possible reasons for this divergence are discussed. Reading "The Irony of Southern History" through the lens of internal orientalism provides useful lessons for understanding the connections between regional and national histories.