Bryan Jones – författare

A highly original reinterpretation of how race and class shaped the entirety of Southern history through the experience of four interconnected family lines. The Southern Fault Line explores the under-appreciated division in the South between the oligarchic rule of plantation owners and industrialists on the one hand, and the more democratic mindset of the mountain-dwelling small farmers on the other. These two mindsets were in continual tension from the 1800s to the 1960s, when the adherents of the more democratic side of the struggle capitulated to the oligarchical side in response to the Civil Rights movement.Bryan Jones draws from his own family's centuries-old history in the region to explore the rise and fall of the "two minds" of the South. Through a comparison of the experiences of a slaveholding line in his family with three non-slaveholding lines, Jones provides a rich history of the politics of both class and race in the region from the Founding era to the present. The slaveholding side of his family settled in Black Belt Alabama, while ancestral members of the other side of his family were poorer uplanders. In the 1890s, the latter supported the burgeoning populist movement, which for a short window of time tried to unite poor Blacks and poor whites against the patrician planter class and industrialists. After a series of close elections, the planter class was able to stanch the populist tide. They did this in large part by sowing racial division among populism's supporters. Indeed, one of Jones' ancestors helped draft the 1901 Alabama constitution that made Jim Crow the law of the state. Throughout, Jones shows how deep the political differences were between the two regions, with oligarchy characterizing the slaveholding region and a more democratic ethos shaping the non-slaveholding areas. Jones serves as the final observer, a white boy observing not only the demise of the Jim Crow South, but--in the wake of the Civil Rights movement--the demise of the mountain democratic South as well. Today, the vast majority of Southern whites regardless of class support an oligarchical Republican Party.

How do you define the quality of life of a farmed animal? This timely book addresses the complex and often controversial issues surrounding the assessment and improvement of farm animal welfare. Based on a large, multi-disciplinary EU funded research project called Welfare Quality, it discusses the relevance of science based welfare assessments and the importance of establishing a fruitful dialogue between science and society. An outline is given of the development of a workable welfare assessment system for cattle, pigs and chickens as well as practical ways of improving the animals' quality of life.This book synthesises the huge body of work carried out by the largest ever international network of scientists and stakeholders in Welfare Quality. It describes some of the obstacles encountered and their solution and why particular paths were chosen. It also clearly sets out what still needs to be done and presents selected strategies and technologies (automation, proxy indicators, targeting of risk factors, etc.) designed to ensure the continued improvement of welfare and its assessment.The book provides a valuable source of knowledge on farm animal welfare for social and animal scientists, students, teachers, policy makers, lobby groups and the animal industry.