DuPont Comes to Tobacco Road: Industrialization in the Postwar South

FAIN: FT-52628-04

Lu Ann Jones
East Carolina University (Greenville, NC 27858-5235)

I seek NEH support to work on a case study of "second wave" industrialization in the American South after World War II. Specifically, I plan to conduct 25-30 oral history interviews with retired workers, managers and community leaders to explore how a branch plant of the DuPont corporation shaped the rural economy and culture of eastern North Carolina. This project is part of a book-length study that contributes to the historical scholarship on economic development, capital mobility, the growth of consumer culture, and labor, gender, and race relations.