Development Arrested : The Blues and Plantation Power in the Mississippi Delta

Development Arrested is a major reinterpretation of the two-centuries-old conflict between the African Americans and planters in the Mississippi Delta.

Woods traces the decline and resurrection of plantation ideology in national public policy debates, showing the ways in which African Americans in the Delta have continued to push forward their agenda for social and economic justice despite having suffered countless defeats under the planter regime.

Woods interweaves the role of music in sustaining their efforts, surveying a musical tradition that embraced a radical vision of social change.