Alabama in the Twentieth Century (The Modern South)

Rating:
Summary: A sober look at a dysfunctional state
Review: Dr Flynt gives us a comprehensive view of the multitude of problems that face the state of Alabama, most of which stem, according to Flynt, from the state's atrocious 1901 Constitution. From powerful land barons, to racial inequality, to a regressive tax structure, to an incompetent and largely ineffective state legislature, to a simpering, craven state Supreme Court, the state Constitution lies at the root of nearly all of the ills that hamper Alabama's efforts toward modernization. Readers of this fine book will be left in wonderment, as if witnessing a dog that speaks poorly, not that the state functions well, but that it functions at all.