Solid South

While Luus and Kapp's partnership after lunch was solid, South Africa are not blessed with the same batting depth as England and it always felt as if one wicket would change the direction of the Test.

The more layered reality of the so-called “Solid South” was that two unofficial parties operated under one banner.

And “Racial Realignment,” by Eric Schickler, shows how a bottom-up alliance of powerful trade unions and groups like the N.A.A.C.P. forced the Democratic Party to embrace civil rights, even though that meant losing its longtime power base in the segregated “solid South.”

The result was that the G.O.P. had essentially no institutional infrastructure or electoral base in the Democrats’ “Solid South.”

Just look at a map of the red states: the solid South and the old Civil War territories that run up the spine of America from Oklahoma to the Dakotas.