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Center for Urban Studies
1-1988
New West, New South, New Region: The Discovery of the Sunbelt
Carl Abbott
Portland State University, [email protected]
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Abbott, Carl, "New West, New South, New Region: The Discovery of the Sunbelt" (1988). Center for Urban Studies Publications and
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NEW WEST, NEW SOUTH, NEW REGION
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SUNBELT
Carl Abbott
Discussion Paper 88-3
Center for Urban Studies
School of Urban and Public Affairs
Portland State University
Portland, OR 97207-07 51
NEW WEST, NEW SOUTH, NEW REGION
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SUNBELT
It is not often that a new term enters the American language
to
describe
our pattern of economic and cultural
have happily used North,
the
New
nation.
George
Washington
talked
century
have
We
and West since the beginning of
England dates from the
relative newcomers,
a
South,
regions.
seventeenth
about the Middle
States.
century.
Even
with
we find that the Pacific Northwest goes back
and that the twelve states from Ohio to
been the Middle West since the years when
the
Teddy
Dakotas
Roosevelt
1
and
William Howard Taft filled the White House.
In recent years,
like
people have been intrigued by new coinages
those used by Joel Garreau to describe the "nine nations of
North
America,"
empty
quarter"
Schemes
to
natural
and
or "the foundry"
consolidate
into
everyday
and redraw state
to
"the
conversations.
boundaries
economic divisions have a long lineage but
to
match
limited
Neither Rexford Tugwell's proposal to designate twenty
impact.
"United
but few Americans sprinkle references
Republics''
nor Stanley Brunn' s Angelina
and
Tropicana
have penetrated the national consciousness.
Ecotopia, introduced
by
in
Ernest
Callenbach's
utopian
novel
occasionally in the Pacific Northwest.
1975,
appears
In most cases,
however,
2
the use is mildly ironic rather than serious.
One
instant
great exception to the generalization is the
success of Sunbelt.
In the 1970s,
"Sunbelt" became
sort of superstar of business and political journalism.
2
seemingly
It
a
is,
perhaps, our newest "Middle West."
entrenched
that
the
in
popular use and essentially immune
vernacular
measurable
The term appears to be deeply
region does not
coincide
to
criticism
with
important
patterns in economic activity or social and
cultural
behavior.
Given
the
speed with which we have embraced the
idea
and
terminiology of a Sunbelt, this essay attempts to explore several
related issues.
As an introduction,
it will briefly review the
process of introduction and acceptance of the term.
It will then
explore possible reasons for the "discovery" of the Sunbelt,
its
seemingly
has
slipped
quick
to
underlying
and its persistant use after
the status of cliche in
national
so
readily
it
journalism.
concern is to understand why Americans took
terminology
"Sunbelt"
success,
the
to heart by examining what it
explains or implies that lies beyond the
The
is
new
that
connotations
of our more traditional regional terms.
From Coinage to Cliche
In
Sunbelt
standard accounts,
goes
to
credit for introduction of the
Kevin Phillips and his 1969
analysis
Emerging Republican Majority in national politics.
term
of
The
Phillips used
"Sun Belt" and "Sun Country" interchangeably to describe a region
of
conservative
voting habits where Republicans could
build their status as a new majority party.
were
the mobile,
work
to
Phillips' sunbelters
leisure-oriented middle class supplemented
by
3
the new generation of relatively affluent and mobile retirees.
The
attribution
is
partially
3
misleading.
Like
the
differential
idea
calculus and the theory of natural
selection,
the
of a Sunbelt has had at least two independent formulations.
Phillips was unaware of previous use and considered the term
own
coinage,
but
his
Army Air Force planners as early as the 1940s
had already defined and described a "sunshine belt" south of
37th
parallel
as the acceptable location for new
air
the
training
4
It seems fair to suggest that the "sunshine
facilities.
remained
reason
belt"
buried in Pentagon documents not only for the technical
that it was intended for internal military use
but
also
because it was an idea whose time had not yet come.
Secondly,
of
either
concern
used "Sunbelt" without clear definition
Given
its territory or characteristics.
with
generalizations
than
Phillips
voting
behavior,
he
was
more
his
interested
about the social consequences of Sunbelt
in its economic and demographic causes.
Indeed,
did not so much describe the region as cite four leading
His
prime
country,"
examples were variously the
basic
in
growth
the book
states.
"Florida-California
or the "new urban complexes of Texas and Florida,"
Sun
or
5
the four boom states of California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
To
a
substantial
previous
1950s
this
analysis
looked
backward
to
studies of regional growth rather than forward to a new
regional definition.
the
degree,
in
It substantially restated classic work from
which Edward Ullman and Harvey
Perloff
associates identified certain parts of Florida and the
as benefitting from environmental amenities,
and
his
Southwest
resource endowment,
6
and expanding local markets.
Indeed, the time was no more ripe for "Sunbelt" in 1969 than
4
for
"sunshine belt" twenty-five years earlier.
of the lack of innovation in its application,
languished
Lubell
for
tried
another six
it
years.
Perhaps because
Phillips' new term
Political
the next year but preferred
analyst
to
Samuel
organize
his
7
discussion
of voting trends around traditional regions.
apparently
pioneered
the
use
of
"Sunbelt"
in
Austin
promotional
advertising in 1973, but national magazine articles on boom times
in the old Confederacy continued to talk about the "South,"
South,"
and
"new
rich
South" through the first
half
"new
of
the
8
1970s.
As
Power
the
has been widely noted,
Shift:
Norther~
articles
idea
it was
Kirkpatrick
Sale's
The Rise of the Southern Rim and its Challenge
Establishment
on February 9-13,
and
a series
1976,
of
New
York
Times
that first popularized
of a Sunbelt (even though Sale used different
to
the
terminology)
9
and provided the rudiments of an operational definition.
The
The
term
Times
passed from coinage to cliche in 1976
seal of significance made it an instant
and
hit
1977.
in
the
press.
One sunbelt scholar has called the bicentennial year "the,
Golden
Age of Sunbelt promotion," with articles in nearly
every
trend-setting
periodical on the Sunbelt's growing political and
10
power and emerging image.
Appearing at a time when
economic
many
northeastern
and
middle western states
and
cities
were
finding it difficult to recover from economic recession, the idea
that
federal policy had long favored the growth of what was
identified
as
the Sunbelt became the pivot for a
major
now
policy
11
debate
began
in
to
reflects
1976-78.
fade
Although popular attention to the
in the late
1970s,
scholarship
in
the
Sunbelt
1980s
the customary five-year lag between identification of a
5
phenonenon and completion of substantial social science research.
A
set
of social science and humanities data
citations
to
"Sunbeltn in 1976,
bases
nine
an average of 32 per year
and an average of 53 per year for 1980-82.
1977-79,
shows
for
As a
sure
sign of academic respectability, "sunbelt" has become a catchword
that
is
used in scholarly titles where the less
glamorous
but
12
sometimes more accurate West or South would do just as well.
Sunbelt as a Regional Concept
The
"smoke
exist
and
volume of attention has supported what can be called
and
fire" approach which assumes that the
if so many people are talking about it,
using
the
definition
is
term
promotional
fuzzy at best,
characteristics
identifiable
in
that
seem
literature.
phenonenon
The
working
bundling together a wide
to
be
resulting
comparative advantage of regions.
must
writing about it,
spatially
set
associated.
set of traits relate to the Sunbelt as
development
Sunbelt
a
a
of
One
regional
from a secular shift
in
the
Specific explanations for the
recent rapid growth of the Sunbelt variously emphasize locational
decisions
response
in
response to
to
regional
industrialization
and
migration
industrial
mix
of
cultural
market
locational
growth;
decisions
migration
based on traditional agricultural and
resources;
characteristics
amenities;
the
relate
environment
in response to basic changes
13
American economy.
A second
to
the Sunbelt
as
a
distinct
and
mineral
in
set
the
of
socio-
involving both lifestyle choices that
6
in
are
most
easily
expressed
in
low-density,
automobile-oriented
communities
with easy access to outdoor recreation and
14
political values that support rapid growth.
Taking
however,
a step back to reexamine the Sunbelt as
we
a
concept,
find several peculiarities that throw doubt on its
regional identity.
presumptive
distinct
Most obviously,
defining
it is difficult to use
characteristics
to
generate
the
objective
measures whose distribution coincides with the territory south of
the
37th parallel--the consensual Sunbelt boundary as defined by
15
journalistic
Key
convention and popular usage.
factors
reflecting
the
growth,
metropolitan
metropolitan
emergence
of
a
location
Sunbelt
of
might
national
be
rates
and
regional
centers with high levels of producer services,
distribution of the interrelated
high technology
and
manufacturing,
research and development, and military-defense spending.
these
of
None of
key regional development factors has been confined to
the
Sunbelt nor distributed evenly within the consensual Sunbelt.
have
argued elsewhere that these same factors allow division
I
of
the "census South" into a rapidly developing "Outer South" of the
Chesapeake
Bay
transitional
Carolinas,
states,
"Middle
Florida,
South"
of
and
Louisiana,
and a more slowly growing
Texas-Oklahoma,
Georgia,
and
a
the
"Inner South" dominated by
An extension of the same analysis suggests that
old industries.
Texas-Oklahoma can simultaneously be viewed as part of a westernsouthwestern
growth zone that includes Colorado,
Utah,
Nevada,
16
New Mexico,
Arizona, and all of the Pacific states (Map 1).
earlier
study
by
federal
spending,
Browning and Gesler
using
population
and economic
growth,
7
1970-76
data
An
on
well-being
concluded
that
with
South
the
neither Maryland-Virginia nor
uniformity
ethnic
factors
also
West
show
had
belonged
characteristics
17
associated with the Sunbelt than the Sunbelt itself."
Cultural
and that the
Florida
"more
discontinuity
across the Sunbelt states.
rather
As one obvious
example,
mix and the resulting social and political tensions
markedly from the eastern to western ends of the Sunbelt,
divide west of Waco and Fort Worth.
shown
than
different
minority
with a
The South and Southwest have
patterns of ethnic assimilation
relations.
vary
and
majority-
Religious affliation links the entirety
of
the historic South and sets it apart from the West and Southwest.
Tastes
in magazine reading,
however,
place Texas and
Oklahoma
with California and Oregon while separating Florida and Virginia
18
from. the rest of the southeast.
As a transitional subregion,
Texas
effectively functions with the dual identity of a southern
19
and a western state.
It
values
is equally difficult to find a uniform set of
across
conservative,
internal
parochial
the
Sunbelt.
States
tilt
from
liberal
to
or mix the two in odd local brews, on the basis of
dynamics
issues.
of
personality,
Sunbelt
party
voters have
organization,
been
inconsistent
enlisting in Phillips' emerging Republican majority.
Nashville,
political
Atlanta,
Memphis,
Little Rock,
and
in
Charlotte,
Corpus Christi, and
Austin gave fewer than half their votes to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Miami, Tampa, Tucson, and Baton Rouge gave fewer than 51 percent.
The
typical Sunbelt politician of the last decade may have
Jesse Helms, Jeremiah Denton, John Tower, or Barry Goldwater.
8
been
It
may also have been Tom Hayden,
Jerry Brown, Bruce Babbitt, Henry
Cisneros, or Andrew Young.
In addition to lacking consistent defining
the
consensual
is less firmly fixed than
might
first
Many southeasterners use "Sunbelt" as another name
appear.
the
Sunbelt
characteristics,
South
Atlantic
and Gulf states with a spillover
for
into
the
To many southwesterners, however, the real Sunbelt runs
desert.
from California to Texas,
similar
results
journalists
and
with Florida as an outlier.
in
comparing the Sunbelt images
of
college
students
of
Chapel
in
We
find
political
Hill,
Grand
20
Junction,
Phoenix,
and Davis,
also define partial Sunbelts.
university
Regional
California.
leaders
David Mathews,
a former southern
president and Ford cabinet member,
uses Sunbelt as a
synonym for South, but Colorado governor Richard Lamm defines the
21
Sunbelt as "the West and Southwest."
All of these problems of ambiguous definition bring us
to
the
basic
issue
of why Americans have found
terminology of a Sunbelt so appealing,
figure
out what it is.
Indeed,
the
back
idea
even when we can't
quite
we have devised and accepted a
term that reverses our customary pattern of regional coinage.
the past,
becomes
West")
variety
subareas
Americans have either renamed the same region
successively
or
of
1970s,
development
("West"
"Southwest,"
by
becomes
"Mountain
however,
historically
to increasing density
we
subdividing
"West
Coast,"
portions
very distinct
9
"Middle
settlement
large
region
"Pacific
States," and the like).
recombined
maintained
a
of
In
of regions
identities.
In
("West"
"Northwest," "Old Northwest," and
responded
or
and
into
Northwest,"
the
later
that
had
Given
the
limited match with measurable factors and the continuing economic
and cultural differences between South and West/Southwest,
appropriate
the
to ask (1) what purpose or need has been
identification
factors
account
and
for
served
(2)
publicizing of a Sunbelt and
the time-specific acceptance
it is
of
the
by
what
new
terminology in the later 1970s?
West, South, and Sunbelt:
Growth and Change in Regional Images
One
approach to these questions is to examine the
regional images of the South and West,
the
idea
the components from which
of a Sunbelt has been assembled,
utilizing the
categories of economic growth and socio-cultural
that
historic
distinctiveness
are the chief pillars of the Sunbelt definition.
summary,
such
a
review
suggests
that
the
has incorporated many characteristics long
with
reputation
of the American West but
substantial revaluation of the South.
In brief
definition
"Sunbelt"
the
broad
has
of
a
associated
required
a
Whereas the West has been
able to evolve smoothly into the Sunbelt, the "Sunbelting" of the
South
has
required
a fundamental
transformation
of
regional
for its
historic
reputation and self-image.
The American West provides the easy case,
image as a society reborn and remolded has in many ways previewed
the bundle of traits associated with the Sunbelt.
beyond
society
middle
The "New West"
the 95th meridian has simultaneously epitomized
and represented its future.
nineteenth
century
l
1
A parade of writers in the
depicted the
10
American
West
as
the
logical
extension
and
Growth of the
climax of American growth.
claimed a Chicago editor in 1856,
an empire of whose wealth,
was "laying the foundation for
intelligence and power the sun in all
his
course has never seen the equal.u The
and
promoter William Gilpin thought the Rockies to be "the
point
of
West,
centrality
eccentric
and unrivaled
politician
excellence"
keywhose
settlement would "stir the sleep of a hundred centuries ... teach
old nations a new civilization .
glory
. shed a new and resplendent
upon mankind." The West was a land of new beginnings
to individual initiative and social opportunity.
The
Period of National Greatness," said John Wilstach,
the Mississippi,
"nothing
Colorado,
open
"Imperial
would rise in
and Columbia basins, where there was
to prevent the freest scope of the inventive and
moral
22
energies of man.I!
A
new
generation of observers repeated the same themes
the end of the century.
the
Charles Dudley Warner in 1888
at
reported
"joyousness of conquest and achievementu and the "marvellous
building up of new societies" on the northern plains of the Great
West.
William
"populous
and
Thayer's
wealthy
beauty as if by magic.
Marvels
of
the
New
cities that have grown
11
West
into
In another hundred years,
included
power
he predicted,
western cities would surpass those of the East in enterprise
power,
economic
consummation
scholarly
visits
America,"
without
and
in
a
with
always
the
a
result
parallel
"a
in
national
human
growth
history."
quotable James Bryce after
and
and
The
series
of
the 1880s found the West "the most American
part
of
land of "passionate eagerness" where "men
seem
to
11
a
and
live in the future rather than the present.
who feared the impacts of immigration,
Romanism,
socialism,
and
11
Even Josiah Strong,
urbanization,
Mormonism,
whiskey on America's moral stability,
was convinced by 1890 that the West held the key to the
future.
nation's
With twice the population, wealth, and political weight
of the East,
its "preponderating influence" would soon determine
23
"national character, and therefore, destiny.u
The
the
new
residents of the mountain and Pacific West
dominant
"California
Hubert
(Strong, 1890).
view.
Dream"
Kevin Starr has documented in
of
creating a new society in
shared
detail
a
new
the
land.
Howe Bancroft found on the Pacific coast "the ringing
up
of universal intelligence for a final display of what man can
do
at
surrounded by conditions such as had
his best .
before
Barth
and
befallen
the
Historian
lot of man to enjoy."
never
Gunther
has examined the dimensions of urban patriotism in
San
Francisco,
overweening
success,
growth
24
their
whose residents shared dreams
made
confidence in the towns,
a
direct
contribution
of
and
to
Denver
economic
faith
that
national
the
purpose.
strongest
The
confidence
appeared
countertheme
during
the
to
1920s
optimism
western
and
1930s,
when
and
deep
depressions in mining and agriculture reminded many westerners of
their
dependence
writers
eastern
Rockies
capital
and
corporations.
In
and Great Plains produced a series
of
who described and deplored the "colonial" dependency
of
particular,
the
on
25
their
states.
However,
the literature was as much
promotion
of an internal political
26
The concern largely
consumption.
12
agenda
bypassed
as
for
the
for
the
external
relatively
prosperous
oil
regions
of
Texas,
Oklahoma,
and
southern
California, where agricultural crisis coexisted with metropolitan
boom.
The
flush
times
after
1940
brought
reaffirmation of the West's special status.
Earl
Pomeroy,
typically
among others,
American
restatement
Wallace Stegner and
argued that the West was the
part of the nation.
The
Pacific
particular was like the rest of the United States,
expressing
urban,
of
and
most
coast
in
only more so,
the national culture at its most energetic.
It
was
opulent, energetic, mobile, and individualistic, a region
economic
growth
characteritsics
and
openness
to
change--a
that matched America's favorite
list
of
self-image
and
27
previewed the common description of the Sunbelt.
that
the West was America at the extreme,
step
to
The
anticipated
kin
it took only a
the belief that the West embodied the national
region
Morgan
From the idea
in
the postwar
economic
era,
said
historian
and social trends by a
future.
Gerald
Nash
generation.
asserted that "the West of today is very likely
of the America of tomorrow."
short
California,
Neil
a
in turn,
close
was the
future of the West--Carey McWilliams' "Great Exception" and
Neil
28
Morgan's "center of gravity in the westward tilt."
The
subthemes
reaffirmed
regional
associated
western image has also embraced several
that
were
after 1945.
future,
they
established
between
1870
more
and
Like the broader enthusiasm
specific
1920
and
about
the
anticipate in detail some of the
with the contemporary Sunbelt.
environment of the Rockies and Southwest,
13
The dry
and
traits
benign
for example, attracted
tens
of
thousands
of
nineteenth-century
health
seekers
created a sanatorium belt that curved from Denver to Pasadena.
and
29
The same areas formed the heart of a post-World War II retirement
zone
that
has
California.
amenity
They
areas
footloose
spread
from
an
historic
base
have
also
offered prime examples
that have grown because of their
industries
such as electronics,
in
Southern
of
high-
attraction
where
the
for
original
Silicon Valley has been followed by a silicon prairie in Texas, a
silicon desert in Arizona,
a silicon mountain in Colorado, and a
30
silicon
forest in Oregon.
The
West has also been a land of new
Colorado,
and
communities
Puget
in
the
Sound
were
several
all
decades
starts.
centers
after
the
California,
for
utopian
Civil
War.
Twentieth-century manifestations of the same impulse have
from
Southern California's image as a haven for crackpots in the
1920s
and
1930s to the diffusion of
California,
Western
women
In
ranged
New
Mexico-Colorado,
states
1965-75
communes
and the Pacific
through
31
Northwest.
pioneered in the expansion of legal
rights
such as presidential suffrage and liberal divorce
the
mid-twentieth century,
for
32
laws.
the Mountain and Pacific
states
have ranked consistently high on indicators of social opportunity
such
as political participation and levels of health,
welfare
33
support,
and education.
Their metropolitan areas have scored
relatively high on indicators of social well-being from the 1930s
34
to the 1970s.
The
after
the
South has had no such luck.
Civil
backwardness.
War,
the
It was poor,
core
of
For more than
a
the
image
it was rural,
14
southern
and it lacked
century
was
major
industrial
that
development.
A
was only half modern,
levels
of
violence,
education.
regional
The
but
with strong
agrarian
society
values,
high
and limited attention to or investment
racial
economy
laggard economy implied a
caste
system
also denied the
not
only
burdened
concepts
of
in
the
individual
opportunity and careers open to talent that formed the foundation
of
North
Atlantic liberalism.
From one perspective
might be quaintly or reassuringly traditional.
twin
burdens
of
race and poverty made it
the
South
From another, its
the
nation's
great
social problem.
In either case, its defining characteristic was
its
participate fully in the growth of
failure
to
the
modern
nation.
The
the
counterimage of a "New Southu was essentially rooted in
As a prescription
same negative comparison.
change,
advocates
reincarnations
in
of
for
regional
a New South in the 1880s and its
the twentieth century offered an
various
agenda
for
35
industrialization
laggard
South
in
The
imitation of the North.
converging on national norms
dominated
social science through much of the present century.
degree
to
which southern manufacturing actually
large
presumed
cities,
values,
and
sociologists
analyzed
a
a
and
more
open and
class,
tolerant
southern
disturbed
the
would
bring
modernization
society.
economists stated the theory
its implications,
a
Although the
to be a transforming cause that
cosmopolitan middle
of
its development was
political and social status quo was limited,
commonly
idea
of
Dozens
of
of
convergence,
and mined each decennial census
for
data on urbanization, occupational structure, health, income, and
15
education
confirm
36
incorporation" of the region.
The
that
would
popular
image
of
or
the South as
shaped
entertainment media was equally negative.
traced
the
evolution
by
news
from sharecropper and
gothic
photography in the 1920s and 1930s to
passionate,
and
novels and
the
"tribal,
neurotic" South of the 1940s and 1950s.
agitation
and
"neoabolitionist"
reactive violence in
dramas
that
and
Jack Temple Kirby has
documentary
rights
"national
the
postpone
confronted
the
the
Civil
1960s
brought
evils
of
the
37
udevilish South."
At
start of 1970s,
contrasted
that
in
the South and West were
still
sharply
The same
public image and public opinion.
brought The Emerging Republican Majority to the
bookstores
also brought Easy Rider to the nation's movie theaters.
of
drugged-soaked buddies,
as Americans over 30 will
a motorcycle tour across the southern tier of
took
They
States.
did not ride through a "Sunbelt."
year
Its pair
remember,
the
United
Instead,
the
movie contrasted a positive image of the West--an idyllic commune
in
the
mountains of New Mexico--with increasingly negative
and
violent
images of the South that include an acid trip in
a
New
Orleans
cemetary
deadly
and
a
final confrontation
violence of the deep South.
mid-1970s,
which
popularity
of
farmework
ranged
country
with
the
The contrasting southenr chic of the
from
"The Waltons"
still
music,
of negative comparison.
to
functioned
the
within
The South supplied
simplicity in contrast to the complexity of the North.
different
Journal
sector
of the communications
industry,
the
pastoral
In a very
Wall
articles on the South remained heavily negative
16
national
Street
through
38
the first half of the 1970s.
A national survey during the same
years found that southerners were relatively happy with their own
region,
but
outsiders.
that
only Florida was significantly attractive
to
The population of the mountain states, by comparison,
would have increased by 124 percent and the Pacific states by
percent
if
everyone desiring to live elsewhere moved
to
41
their
39
region of preference.
In
the
middle and late
1970s,
in
contrast,
the
public
reputation of the South changed drastically with the discovery of
the Sunbelt.
For the first time since the Civil War, the idea of
a Sunbelt allowed the newest New South to deny its dependence and
subordination to the North.
Regional progress could suddenly be
defined in terms of convergence or kinship with the dynamic
West
as
fast
part
of a new leading sector marked by fast growth and
living.
In a sense,
escape
the idea of a Sunbelt allowed the South to
its own history and transform instantly from
"backward"
to "forward" region.
The
jump
contradictory
out
of
reasons.
history was possible
One
reason,
of
for
two
course,
somewhat
was
the
culmination of the social revolution anticipated and applauded by
40
the convergence theory.
Whatever its stand on issues of
lifestyle,
terms
of
relatively
peaceful
unexpected
of
a
the South crossed the threshold of liberal society in
individual
peaceful
school
opportunity
in
the
early
climax of the civil rights
integration
of the 1970s
reputation for racial moderation,
gave
1970s.
The
revolution
and
the
an
as did the arrival
more progressive political generation represented
17
South
in
the
national media by the gubernatorial ABCs of Askew,
Carter.
gained
The
reversal
Bumpers,
of black outmigration during
wide recognition as a reflection of both the
the
and
1970s
realignment
of the southern political system and the economic problems of old
41
industrial core.
The second reason,
divergence
Florida,
so
of
was
economic
fortunes
within
the
South.
Texas,
and secondarily the South Atlantic states were changing
rapidly
"South"
ironically, was the previously mentioned
by
the middle 1970s that the
economic
and "New South" no longer seemed adequate.
the
adoption of the Sunbelt and its associated
imagery
The
of
result
imagery
as
appropriate for the booming periphery of the South, with the rest
of the region drawn along by the force of the new terminology.
Conclusions
for
The
discovery of the Sunbelt has created an enlarged vision
the
South that is essentially an enlarged
West.
The
former
region than for the latter.
really
needed the Sunbelt,
regional
idea
is
a Sunbelt has meant more for the
reputation.
"superAmericans"
Sunbelt.
of
merge
The
California
of
the
for
the
West/Southwest
since it has already had a
surfers
hasn't
positive
and
Texas
easily and directly into the idea
of
a
The South, however, is fundamentally redefined when it
viewed in terms of the Sunbelt.
defined
version
in negative terms,
Having
been
historically
the South has found a sort of rescue
from its past on the coattails of the Sunbelt.
Both
this
specific conclusion and the
18
preceding
analysis
strongly
suggest
Sunbelt
the
value of
disaggregating
among subregions and states.
indicates
the
consensual
Very preliminary
evidence
that the Sunbelt may have found its first and
strongest home in Texas and Oklahoma,
perhaps
a pattern that may reflect
both the ambiguity of their regional identity (cultural South and
economic
West) and their
potential role in
bridging
perceived
42
and real differences between Southeast and Southwest.
be
useful
to examine in more depth and detail
imagery
has
been
states
and
cities
subregional
It
whether
Sunbelt
adopted more readily or extensively
than
differences
in
others
and
whether
in
some
there
are
in the context or content of
that reflect the different experiences and needs of
would
such
West,
use
Outer
South, and Inner South.
A
related
metropolitan
issue
growth,
is
the
extent
to
which
which lies at the heart of
patterns
the
of
processes
associated with the development of a Sunbelt, confirm or deny its
regional
identity.
economic
and
My
own
suggestion
is
that
patterns
of
demographic change can no longer be understood
in
terms of the traditional South however named, since the strongest
growth
areas
are increasingly oriented away from
the
southern
43
heartland.
well
be
In contrast,
operating
southern West.
south
across
the same sorts of growth factors
to maintain unity between the
northern
may
and
Several strings of cities that stretch north and
regional and even international
boundaries
share
economic funcions,
and probable
growth histories,
44
Indeed, much of the contemporary regional patterning
futures.
certain
of
the
West
(and Sunbelt) can be understood in
19
terms
of
the
expansion
and
(reaching
from
zone
intensification
of influence
of
the Louisiana oil country and
Greater
Ozark
into the oil regions of Colorado and Wyoming)
Texas
retirement
and
Greater
California (including Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Hawaii). Texas
and
California
influence
have deep historic roots and
measured
in patterns of finance and
seasonal
migration,
investment,
can
permanent
be
and
45
distribution,
and
recreational
travel.
Florida, which maintains stronger ties with the Caribbean and the
Snowbelt
than with the interior South,
sort
regional
of
appears to lack the same
"empire" but to fill a growing
46
commerce.
Atlanta is an important
international
role
in
regional
center but lacks the national standing of Los Angeles or Houston.
Interestingly, it appears to have become relatively more oriented
to
the
South
Atlantic than to the inner South
over
the
last
47
generation.
Given
been
the
contention that the discovery of a
of special significance for the South,
the
extent
rather
has
a final question is
to which the Sunbelt idea may be seen
than a vindication of the South.
Sunbelt
as
a
denial
A number of specialists
on southern history and society have recently called attention to
the
cultural distinctiveness that persists in spite of
and demographic change.
Reed
calls
and
as
Th~
economic
The broad reevaluation of what John
Enduring South has led
historians,
S.
geographers,
sociologists to explore the continuing identity of the South
a cultural region.
Goldfield,
their
boom.
have
Southern cities,
says
historian
David
remained peculiarly southern in many aspects of
everyday life even while participating the
great
postwar
The prototypical Phillips-Sale Sunbelter is a deracinated
20
and
isolated
individual
retirement
communities
southerner,
rooted
committed
to
contrast,
may
in
adrift
of
Florida.
networks
traditional
in the suburbs
patterns
of
Dallas
or
Goldfield-Reed
The
of kinship
or
and
social
religion
and
behavior,
in
enjoy some of the fruits of "sunbelt"
prosperity
but retains more in common with the nineteenth century South than
48
with contemporary La Jolla or Las Vegas.
The
basic
mismatch
uncertainty about the idea of a Sunbelt
between
emergence
of
regional need and regional
the
idea of a Sunbelt is
modernization of the South,
the
Florida
change.
but California,
traditional
The
to
core
directly
South
innovation,
makes
regional
and
the
the
of
yet the idea of a Sunbelt is
and
smallest
population
of
or
greatest
Tennessee, and
subregional incidence of sunbelt imagery
by
objective
Taken alone,
of
analysis
of
social
and
that
is
economic
either approach gives us a partial view
Taken together, they can help us understand the
of the Sunbelt.
emergence
to
We are left with the need for detailed research on the
accompanied
patterns.
The
leading economic sectors,
potential benefit for states such as Mississippi,
Arkansas.
the
Arizona, Texas, and
the consensual Sunbelt in terms
metropolitan development,
cultural
performance.
peninsula have been its centers of development
contribution
growth,
tied
is
the
Sunbelt as a region and its discovery
idea.
21
as
an
NOTES
1.
an
James R.
American
Shortridge, ''The Emergence of 'Middle West' as
Regional
American
Geographers,
Mathews,
Dictionary
Label,"
74
of
Annals
(June
of
the
1984):
Americanisms on
Association
209-220;
of
Mitford
Historical
M.
Principles
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951).
2.
Joel Garreau, The Nine Nations of North America (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin,
1981); Rexford G. Tugwell, "Constitution for a
United
of
October,
America
Republics
1970):
America,'' Center
Magazine
3
{September-
24-49; Stanley Brunn, Geography and Politics in
(New York:
Harper and Row,
1974);
Ernest
Callenbach,
Ecotopia (Berkeley, CA: Banyan Tree Books, 1975).
3.
Kevin
Phillips,
The Emerging Republican Majority
(New
Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969).
4.
Air
Gilbert Guinn, "A Different Frontier: Aviation, the Army
Force,
and
the Evolution of the Sunshine Belt,"
Historian, 29 (March 1982):
Aerospace
34~45.
5. Phlllips, Republican Majority, 273-74, 438.
6.
Edward
Ullman,
"Amenities
Growth," Geographical Review,
Perloff,
et
al.,
as
a
Factor
44 (January 1954):
Regions,
Resources,
and
in
Regional
119-32; Harvey
Economic
Growth
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1960).
7.
Samuel
Lubell,
The Hidden Crisis in American
Politics
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1970), 269.
8.
Larry
D.
Gustke,
Travel Regionu (Ph.D.
"Mental Images of the Sunbelt
as
a
Dissertation, Texas A&M University, 1982),
1
183-84;
Gene Burd, "The Selling of the Sunbelt: Civic Boosterism
in the Media," in David C. Perry and Alfred J. Watkins, eds., The
Rise of the Sunbelt Cities (Beverly Hills,
CA: Sage Publicatins,
1977), 133.
9.
Rim
and
Kirkpatrick Sale,
Power Shift: The Rise of the Southern
Its Challenge to the Eastern Establishment
(New
York:
Random House, 1975).
10. Gustke, "Travel Region," 77.
11.
Bernard L.
Weinstein and Robert E. Firestine, Regional
Growth and Decline in the United States:
The Rise of the Sunbelt
and the Decline of the Northeast (New York:
Praeger,
Dilger,
The War over Federal
The
Sunbelt/Snowbelt Controversy:
Funds (New York:
The
New York University Press,
Selling of the South:
Development,
1982);
The Southern Crusade
1936-1980 (Baton Rouge:
1978); Jay
James Cobb,
for
Industrial
Louisiana State University
Press, 1982), 193-202; Carl Abbott, The New Urban America: Growth
and Politics in Sunbelt Cities (Chapel Hill:
University of North
Carolina Press, 1987), 2-5.
12. For examples of routine use, see Kathleen Butler and Ben
Chinitz,
"Urban
Richard Knight,
CA:
Growth
eds.,
Gary
Gappert
and
eds., Cities in the 21st Century (Beverly Hills,
Sage Publications,
James,
in the Sunbelt," in
The
Change (New York:
1982), 97-111; Steven Ballard and Thomas
Future of the Sunbelt:
Praeger,
Managing
Growth
and
1983); Franklin James, Minorities in
the Sunbelt (New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research,
1984).
It
Sunbelt
came
journalists
is interesting to note that academic adoption of the
at
the same time that
a
number
were consciously rejecting the term.
2
of
influential
John Naisbitt
in
Megatrends
geographic
back
to
(New
York:
Warner
Books,
1982),
core of the Sunbelt with a redefinitin
the regional analysis of the 1950s,
Florida"
(p.
Penguin Books,
whose
234).
Richard Louv,
that
the
harkens
arguing that
North-South shift is really a shift to the West,
and
removed
the
''the
Southwest,
America 11_ (New
1985) has rejected it as "a conceptual
York:
framework
time has passed" because it cannot account for many of the
important trends in American society (p.
have
ignored
Nations
the Sunbelt entirely.
29).
Other journalists
Joel Garreau in
of North America writes about the Latin
Americaning
the United States.
Peter Wiley and Robert Gottlieb,
the
Putman,
Sun (New York:
The
Nine
of
Empires in
1982) focus on the rise of a super-
Southwest.
13. For examples of different emphases, see Cobb, Selling of
the South, 209-28; Walt W. Rostow, "Regional Change and the Fifth
Kondratieff Upswing," in Watkins and Perry,
Cities,
Change
83-103;
and
Rise of the
Sunbelt
Alfred J. Watkins and David C. Perry, "Regional
the Impact of Uneven Urban Development," in
Watkins
and Perry, Rise o( the Sunbelt Cities, 19-54.
14.
Cities:
Richard
Bernard and Bradley
Politics
University
and
Growth
of Texas Press,
since
1983)'
R.
Rice,
World
15-18;
"Business Loves the Sunbelt (and Vice Versa),
War
Gurney
11
eds.,
II
Sunbelt
(Austin:
Breckenfeld,
Fortune,
95 (June
1977): 132-37; Sale, Power Shift.
15.
Bradley R.
Rice,
11
Searching for the Sunbelt," American
Demographics, 3 (March 1981): 22-23.
16. Carl Abbott, "The End of the Southern City," in James C.
3
Cobb and Charles R.
South,
Vol.
1987),
187-218;
Wilson,
4 (New York:
eds.,
Perspectives on the American
Gordon and Breach Science Publishers,
Carl Abbott,
0
The Metropolitan Region: Western
Cities in the New Urban Era," in Gerald Nash and Richard Etulain,
eds.,
The
Twentieth
pentury
West:
Historian
Interpretations
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming 1989).
17. Clyde Browning and Wil Gesler, "The Sun Belt--Snow Belt:
A
Case of Premature Regionalizing," Professional Geographer,
31
(February 1979): 66-74.
18.
Leo Grebler, Joan Moore, and Raplh Guzman, The Mexican-
American ?eople (New York: Free Press, 1970); Robert A. Goldberg,
"Racial
Change
on
the Southern
Periphery:
The
Case
of
San
Antonio, Texas, 1960-65," Journal of Southern History, 49 (August
349-74; Edwin S. Gaustad, Historical Atlas of Religion in
1983):
America (New York:
"The
Harper and Row,
Bible Belt:
Geography,
Bound:
1976);
Charles A. Heatwole,
A Problem in Regional Definition," Journal
of
77 (February 1978): 50-55; Wilbur Zelinsky, "Selfward
Perspnal
Preference
Patterns
and the Changing
Map
of
American Society," Economic Geography, 50 (April 1974): 144-79.
19.
Donald Meinig,
Texas Press,
Imperial Texas (Austin:
1969); James S. Payne,
of
"Texas Historiography in the
Century:
Ramsdell,
and Walter P. Webb" (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
the
Study of Eugene
C.
Barker,
There are also a number of continuities between
1972).
West South Central states and Southern California,
which originated in the westward migration of Okies,
war
Charles
w;
Twentieth
Denver,
A
University
workers
Texas-Pacific
in
the 1930s and 1940s.
Expressions
kinship networks among blacks to the
4
many
of
Arkies, and
range
difusion
from
of
country music to the central valley of California.
20.
Gustke,
"Travel
Region,u 85-101;
Abbott,
New
Urban
America, 6.
David Mathews, "The Future of the Sunbelt," Society, 19
21.
(July-August 1982): 63-65; Richard Lamm and Michael McCarthy, The
Angry West:
~Vulnerable
Land and Its Future
(Boston:
Houghton
Mifflin, 1982), 123.
Chicago
22.
Democratic Press,
(Chicago,
1857),
64;
American
People:
Review of Commerce for 1856
William Gilpin,
Geographical,
The Mission of the North
Social,
and
Political
(Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1874); Jerome Smiley, History of
of Denver (Denver:
The
Imperial
Denver Times,
Period
1901),
439-40; John Wilstach,
of National Greatness:
~Lecture
on
the
Destiny of the West (Lafayette, IN, 1855), 11.
23. Charles Dudley Warner, "Studies of the great West: A Far
and
Fair
1888):
CT:
Country," Harper's New
Monthly
Magazine,
(March
76
556-69; William Thayer, Marvels of the New West (Norwich,
The Henry Bill Publishing Co.,
1891), 404; James Bryce, The
American Commonwealth (New Edition;
New York: The Macmillan Co.,
892;
1912),
Its
Josiah Strong, Our Countr;y_;_ Its Possible Future and
Present
Crisis,
edited by Jurgen
Harvard University Press,
24.
York:
Kevin
Oxford
Starr,
1963),
through
University
Press,
the
27-40,
182,
(Cambridge,
194,
1973) and Inventing the
Progressive
1985);
Hubert
Era
Howe
(New
York:
Bancroft,
MA:
198.
Americans and the California Dream
University Press,
California
Herbst
(New
Dream:
Oxford
Literary
Industries (San Francisco: The History Company Publishers, 1890),
5
2;
Gunther Barth,
San
Francisco
Instant Cities:
Urbanization and the Rise of
and Denver (New York:
Oxford
University
Press,
1976), 128-54.
25. Walter Prescott Webb, Divided We Stand (New York: Farrar
and Rinehart,
1937);
Joseph K. Howard, Montana: High, Wide, and
Handsome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1942); Wendall Berge,
Economic
Freedom for the West (Lincoln:
Press,
1946);
Morris
Garnsey,
University of
America's
New
Nebraska
Frontier:
The
Mountain West (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950).
26.
For
a
review
of this thesis and
political
intentions,
Province'
Thesis and the Recent Historiography of
West,
It
see William G.
evaluation
Robbins,
of
its
"The 'Plundered
the
American
Pacific Historical Review, 55 (November 1986): 577-97.
27.
Wallace
Dilemma,"
Stegner,
Atlantic,
213
"Born
a
Square:
(January 1964):
The
45-50 and
Westerner's
"The
West
Coast: Region with a View, Saturday Review, 42 (May 2, 1969): 1517, 41; Earl Pomeroy, "What Remains of the West?" Utah Historical
Quarterly, 35 (Winter 1967): 37-56.
28.
Gerald Nash, The American West in the Twentieth Century
(Englewood Cliffs,
Westward Tilt:
1963),
26;
Prentice-Hall,
1973), 296; Neil Morgan,
The American West Today
(New York: Random House,
Carey
NJ:
McWilliams,
California:
The Great Exception
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971).
29.
Billie M. Jones, Health Seekers in the Southwest, 1817-
1900 (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press,
1967);
John
Baur,
Health Seekers of Southern California, 1870-1900 (San Marino, CA:
Huntington Library, 1959).
30~
Ullman,
"Amenities;"
John Garwood,
6
"An Analysis
of
Postwar
Industrial
Geography,
Migration
29 (January 1953):
and Amy Glasmeier,
Why
to Utah and
79-88;
High Tech America:
Saxenian,
"Silicon
Economic
Ann Markusen, Peter Hall,
Th~
of the Sunrise Industries (Boston:
AnnaLee
Colorado,"
Valley
What,
How, Where and
Allen and Unwin,
and
Route
128:
1986);
Regional
Prototypes or Historic Exceptions?" in Manuel Castells, ed., High
Technology,
Space,
and
Society
(Beverly
Hills,
CA:
Sage
Publications, 1985), 81-105.
Charles
31.
(Seattle:
LeWarne,
Utopias on
Puget
Sound,
1885-1915
University of Washington Press, 1975); Robert V. Hine,
California's Utopian Colonies (New Haven:
Yale University Press,
1959);
Dolores Hayden, Seven American Utopias (Cambidge, MA: MIT
Press,
1976),
Search
for
James E. Vance, Jr., "California and the
the Ideal,"
Geographers,
on~
321-47;
Annals of the Association
of
American
62 (June 1972): 185-210; Frances Fitzgerald, Cities
Hill (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986).
32.
Peter
Gould,
Spatial
Diffusion
(Washington,
DC:
Association of American Geographers, 1969), 63.
33.
David M.
Smith,
The Geography of Social Well-Being in
the United States (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1973), 79-103; Raymond
Gastil,
of
Cultural
Regions
the
University of Washington Press,
United
1975),
States
(Seattle:
117-36; Brunn, Geography
and Politics, 323.
34.
Edward
L.
Thorndike,
Your City (New
York:
Harcourt
Brace, 1939); Ben Chieh Liu, Quality of Life Indicators in
S.
Metropolitan Areas (Kansas City:
Midwest Research Institute,
1975); Smith, Geography of Social Well-Being, 104-119.
7
the~
35.
Paul Gaston,
~Study
The New South Creed:
in Southern
Mythmaking (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970).
36.
James
1887-1984
Cobb,
(Lexington:
Industrialization and
Southern
University Press of Kentucky,
Society,
1984),
1;
Cobb, Selling of the South, 265-67; Rupert Vance, Human Geography
of
the South (Chapel Hill:
1932);
William
H.
University of North Carolina
Nicholls,
Southern rradition
and
Press,
Regional
Progress (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960);
Selz
C.
Mayo,
"Social
Change,
Social
Movements,
Disappearing Sectional South,n Social Forces,
1-10;
John
National
C.
McKiney and Linda Bourque,
Incorporation
of
a
Region,"
and
the
43 (October 1964):
"The Chaning
American
South:
Sociological
Review, 36 (June 1971): 399-412.
37.
Jack Temple Kirby,
American
Media-made Dixie:
Imagination (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana
The South in the
State
University
Press, 1978).
38.
Cobb,
Selling of the South,
183-86; Kirby, Media-Made
Dixie, 133-36; Burd, "Selling of the Sunbelt."
39.
Philip Rones,
"Moving to the Sun: Regional Job Growth,
1968-78," Monthly Labor Review, 103 (March 1980): 12-19.
40.
Rebecca
Phenomenon:
James,
Casues
eds.,
The
Roberts
of
and
Growth,"
Lisa
Butler,
"The
in Steven Ballard
Future. of the Sunbelt:
Managing
and
Sunbelt
Thomas
Growth
and
Change (New York: Praeger, 1983), 1-36.
41.
Numan Bartley and Hugh Davis Graham,
The South and
th~
Second Reconstruction (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1975);
Jack
Bass
and Walter DeVries,
The Transformation
Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1976).
8
of
Southern
42.
Bernard and Rice, Sunbelt Cities, 6-7, 28.
43. Abbott, "End of the Southern City."
44. The Grat Plains gateways of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas,
Fort Worth,
Oklahoma City,
Wichita, Omaha, and Winnipeg all lie
within 100 miles of the 98th meridian.
Billings,
Calgary,
and
Edmonton
El Paso, Denver, Casper,
have grown as center for
development of mineral regions in or along the Rockies.
the
The Wrst
Coast ports from Los Angeles-Long Beach to Vancouver compete
for
the international commerce of the Pacific Rim.
45. For historical data or discussions, see Meinig, Imperial
Texas;
Earl Pomeroy, The Pacific Slope:
Oregon,
Washington, Idaho, UtahL and Nevada (New York; Alfred A.
Knopf, 1965); Gilman Ostrander,
1859-1964 (New York:
Sara Smith,
South,
of California-L
~History
Aldred A.
Nevad~_;_
Knopf,
1966);
Rupert Vance and
"Metropolitan Dominance and Integration in the Urban
in Rupbert Vance and Nicholas Demerath,
11
!?~.L
The Great Rotten
South (Chapel Hill:
For aspects of contemporary data,
"Shifts
in
Wholesale
Trade
Status
The Urban
Press,
University of North Carolina
114-34.
the
eds.,
see J.
of
1954),
Dennis Lord,
United
States
Metropolitan Areas," Professional Geographer, 36 (February 1984):
51-63; John F. Rooney, Jr., Wilbur Zelinsky, and Dean Louder, rhe
Remarkable
Continent:
An
Atlas of United States
and
Canadian
Society and Culture (College Station: Texas A&M University Press,
1982),
Region.
107,
126,
188,
207,
209,
In
some
interpretations,
239;
Abbott, "Metropolitan
11
46.
directly
parts
of
Virginia and
Megalopolis and Florida is
9
a
Maryland
are
Megalopolitan
outlier connected by migration, tourism, and popular tastes.
See
Jean Gattman, Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of.
the United States (New York:
Wilbur
Zelinsky,
The Twentieth Century Fund,
"Selfward
Bound"
and
"The
Roving
1961);
Palate:
North America's Ethnic Restaurant Cuisines," Geoforum, 16 (1985):
51-72.
47.
Lawrence W. Carstensen, Jr., "Time-Distance Mapping and
Time-Space
Convergence:
The
Southern United
Staes,
1950-75,
11
Southeastern Geographer, 21 (November 1981): 67-83.
48. John Shelton Reed, The Enduring South (Lexington, MA: D.
C.
Heath,
Culture
1972) and One South:
(Baton Rouge:
An Ethnic Approach to
Regional
Louisiana State University Press,
1982);
George B. Tindall, The Ethnic Southerners (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State
University
vanishing
1982):
Press,
South,"
3-20;
David
Journal
1976);
Charles
of Southern
Goldfield,
Roland,
History,
Cottonfields
and
"The
48
Ever-
(February
Skyscrapers:
Southern City and Region, 1607-1980 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1982).
10