David Goldfield panelist discussing new ‘Landslide’ podcast

David Goldfield, Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at UNC Charlotte, was a panelist on an episode of WFAE’s Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins, as they discussed “Landslide,” the new podcast about 1976 and the events that led up to President Jimmy Carter’s election.

“It was a very fraught time and what Gerald Ford brought to the White House was sort of a calm demeanor, and what Jimmy Carter brought to his candidacy, a sense of normalcy,” said Goldfield.

“America was in the process of romanticizing the American south. We had these ‘ABC’ governors: we had Ruben Askew in Florida, Dale Bumpers in Arkansas and Jimmy Carter in Georgia, and these three governors typified the transformation of the south from still fighting the civil war and still supporting racial segregation, to a region that was opening up to everyone, not only in terms of race but also in terms of its economy,” said Goldfield. “The south was growing faster than any other region in the country, so it was a poster child for what America could be, particularly in 1976 when we were celebrating the bicentennial.”

Read and listen to the story from WFAE.

Watch the Facebook Livestream of the episode of Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins.