Practicing attorney Ranney (legal history adjunct, Marquette U.) shows how the South was in fact not at all unified, and that building a new social order from the ruins of a slave economy was a state-by-state enterprise. He also finds that far from operating under a legal system imposed by the victorious North, Southern courts operated largely independently. Along with the economic issues, which each state handled largely on its own, many courts made surprising rulings toward reunification and civil rights in defiance of Southern legislators. The result is a fascinating account of how the relationship of law and society can be simultaneously interdependent, delicate and complex. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)