A celebrated social history, Life and Labor in the Old South (1929) represents the culmination of three decades of research and reflection on the social and economic systems of the antebellum South by a leading historian of the first half of the twentieth century. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (1877-1934) sought to include populations neglected in earlier scholarship - Indians, Latinos, yeomen farmers, and mountain folk - as a means of underscoring the region's complex diversity and the importance of human interaction. Deeply researched in primary sources, carefully focused on social and economic facets of slavery, and gracefully written, Phillips' germinal account set the standard for his contemporaries.   This edition includes a new introduction by John David Smith that frames the volume within Progressive Era scholarship, chronicles its critical reception among blacks and whites, and highlights its influence on contemporary debates about southern identity and slavery.