The Transformation of Plantation Politics: Black Politics,Concentrated Poverty, and Social Capital in the MississippiDelta. By Sharon D. Wright Austin. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 2006. 247p. $65.00.

The title of Sharon Wright Austin's new book is intended to beironic. As the author persuasively demonstrates, there has been notransformation of politics in the Mississippi Delta, and the area'swealthy white elite continues to dominate politics there. The lackof significant change is disappointing, as the Delta's poverty rateis more than three times the national average, and four counties inthe area have higher infant mortality rates than some Third Worldcountries.