It is most improbable, however, that there would be a Confederacy today, if the South had "won" and split from the Union permanently. The institution of slavery was rotted thru to its core, and would have crumbled soon, probably within a couple of decades. The Confederate states would have been reabsorbed by the Union, one by one or en masse, so that here in the 21st Century we would be looking at an America that probably most closely resembled this nation as it was about the time I was born.

"Southern pride" may be blinding you to the economic realities. In the changing world of the late 19th Century, the slave holding Confederacy would have plunged deeper and deeper into economic decline. By the turn of that century, the CSA would have been a "third world" nation that would have made modern India look like an industrial paradise. The CSA would have been faced with some very harsh choices -- basically boiling down to rejoining the Union, or starving to death.

Spike Lee thinks a minstrel show would be a huge success in a White market. What more do you need to know about his stance on these matters?

I don't know if anyone here has ever read books by Harry Turtledove, but you may want to give them a shot.  He offers some great alternative histories in terms of is the CSA won or if they had split from the Union completely.

Edited to add:  The American Empire trilogy (Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and The Victorious Opposition) is an excellent read.  It also follows dead on what JB was saying....

"Southern pride" may be blinding you to the economic realities. In the changing world of the late 19th Century, the slave holding Confederacy would have plunged deeper and deeper into economic decline. By the turn of that century, the CSA would have been a "third world" nation that would have made modern India look like an industrial paradise. The CSA would have been faced with some very harsh choices -- basically boiling down to rejoining the Union, or starving to death.

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I used to think that if the South had won (defined, I suppose, by the South maintaining its indepedence) that it would have been easy pickings for another country -- England, even France. Do you see that as a possibility? Or if another country had tried to "take" the South, that the Union would have intervened?

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Spike Lee thinks a minstrel show would be a huge success in a White market. What more do you need to know about his stance on these matters?

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Well, there is the UPN.

Seriously, though, I think one of the greatest examples of how "diversity" can often equal divisiveness is that twenty years ago, the number on TV show in the U.S. (and none of the 18-49 stuff -- purely based on numbers) was Cosby, a show with a predominately black cast with a genuinely black POV (not oppressivly so, either). And everyone watched it.

Now, the viewing habits of blacks and whites (generically speaking) is really splintered. UPN is basically a programming ghetto. What changed?

Grey's Anatomy has an honest diversity that's refreshing and is fun to watch, though, but it's a rarity.