Faculty
Samuel L. Webb, J.D. and Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Arkansas
samwebb@uab.edu
Samuel L. Webb (J. D., University of Alabama) is the author of Two-Party Politics in the One-Party South: Alabama's Hill Country, 1874 - 1920 (1997), in which he analzes Independent, Greenback, Populist and Republican opposition to the state's ruling Democratic party and concludes that a vibrant, highly competitive two-party system existed in several North Alabama counties for nearly half a century after Reconstruction. Webb also contends that the Republican party actually gained strength in the area after disfranchisement, and the Hill Country's Republicans int he period between 1896 and 1920 were mostly ex-Populists. These agarian radicals continued to exhibit reform tendencies as Republicans, and strongly supported the Bull Moose presidential candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
Webb has also published two articles in The Journal of Southern History dealing with Alabama politics in the Gilded Age and Progressive period. "From Independents to Populists to Progressive Republicans: The Case of Chilton County, Alabama, 1880-1920" appeared in the November 1993 issue and "A Jacksonian Democrat in Postbellum Alabama: The Ideology and Infulence of Journalist Robert McKee, 1869-1896" appeared in May 1996.
Along with UAB colleague Margaret Armbrester, Webb has just completed editing a group of essays by other scholars on Alabama's state governors. They hope to have that book in publication by the spring of 2001.
A historiographical essay by Webb on southern politics during the age of Populism and Progressivism will appear int he new Handbook of Southern History being edited by Rice University's John Boles for the Blackwell Publishing Company.
Currently, Webb is researching a book about Alabama politics in the period betwe the two World Wars that will deal with the impact of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Depression and the New Deal on Alabama's congressional delegation and officials of state government.
For questions concerning his research, please contact Dr. Webb.
