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Political Economy Research Seminar

The Confederate Diaspora

Samuel Bazzi (University of California, San Diego), joint with Andreas Ferrara, Martin Fiszbein, Thomas Pearson, and Patrick A. Testa

Tuesday 14 March 2023 14:00 - 15:30

Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events. Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.

Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.

Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.


About this event

This paper shows how white migration out of the early postbellum South helped to diffuse and entrench Confederate culture across the United States at a critical juncture of westward expansion, national reconciliation, and nation building. These migrants laid the groundwork for Confederate memorialization and racial norms to become pervasive nationally in the early 20th century. Former Confederates, and especially those from slaveholding backgrounds, sorted into positions of power, exacerbated racial violence, and built exclusionary institutions. Migrants transmitted Confederate nostalgia to their children and to non-Southern white populations in their new communities. The legacy of the Confederate diaspora persists over the long run with implications for racial inequity in labor and housing markets as well as policing. Together, our findings shed new light on the role of migration in shaping the cultural and institutional foundations of racial animus across America.

The Political Economy Research Seminar is jointly organised by the Departments of Economics, of Government, and of Management, with financial support from STICERD.

It brings together scholars across multiple departments at the LSE and from nearby universities. The series consists of talks by external and internal faculty presenting theoretical or empirical papers on a wide range of topics associated with political economy.

These seminars are held on Tuesdays in term time at 14.00-15.30, in room MAR 6.33, unless specified otherwise.

Seminar coordinators: Timothy Besley (Economics), Tak-Huen Chau (Government), Stephane Wolton (Government), Noam Yuchtman (Management)

Contact gov.comms@lse.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list or for further information.