Arkansas in Modern America since 1930, second edition, by Ben Johnson III, has been reviewed in the winter 2020 issue of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.
Janine Parry writes:
“It will surprise no one that the second edition of Ben Johnson’s Arkansas in Modern America is as estimable as the first. Once again, Johnson has transfigured a detailed account of a single state’s history into a reading experience substantive and lively enough to satisfy both seasoned scholars and a general audience. Alternately waggish and warm, like its predecessor, the new work avoids a mere “tacking on” of two more decades’ worth of developments. It is instead the conscientious, thorough revision we would expect from an author so exceptionally skilled in the art of spinning dense content into potent prose. … Ben Johnson has crafted a substantive, probing update to an essential work of Arkansas history. That he does so in a manner that remains both lively and sobering, clear-eyed and compassionate is an enviable achievement.”
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly is a journal of the Arkansas Historical Association.
This second edition of Arkansas in Modern America since 1930 represents a significant rewriting of and elaboration on the first edition, published in 2000. Historian Ben F. Johnson fills in gaps, reconsiders his original conclusions, and reflects on new developments in historical scholarship, extending the book’s analysis of the political, economic, social, and cultural positions into 2018.
Particularly impressive for the breadth of its scope, Arkansas in Modern America since 1930 offers an overview of the factors that moved Arkansas from a primarily rural society to one more in step with the modern economy and perspectives of the nation as a whole. The narrative covers the roles of Daisy Bates, Sam Walton, Don Tyson, Bill Clinton, and other influential figures in the state’s history to reveal a state shaped by global as much as by local forces. The second edition of this important book will continue to set the standard for analysis and interpretation of Arkansas’s place in the contemporary world.
Ben F. Johnson III is the John G. Ragsdale Jr. and Dora J. Ragsdale Professor of Arkansas Studies at Southern Arkansas University.