Tracing Pike County from its creation, The Structure of Time: Pike County, Mississippi, 1815-1912 explores the economic, social, and political tensions between local autonomy and national integration. The book focuses on the years following Reconstruction when an embattled white elite sought to achieve the promises of the New South creed and to maintain the vision of a hierarchical, organic society. In the end, the unique history of Pike County provides an interpretive framework for the general history of the post-bellum South.