From the authors of The South was Right! comes a new edition of what one historian calls one of the most important and original histories of the Southern people. Punished with Poverty tells the unvarnished story of the intentional policy of economic devastation and exploitation of the South which has affected all Southerners, both black and white, long after the close of the "Civil War" and "Reconstruction." In fact, the sad legacy of these punitive policies continues to this very day. The over-arching theme of Southern history is not Race, as is conventionally stated, but Poverty-poverty not due to the South's shortcomings, but imposed on them by the system under which they live.Punished with Poverty is a timely and much needed contribution to the understanding of both the South and the nature of the "Federal Empire" under which all Americans now live.