ABSTRACT
In the decades after World War II, Henry Grady's vision of the New South finally approached reality. The Southern rim of the United States, an arc that stretches from Virginia to southern California, became the nation's fastest growing region. The economic emergence of the Sun Belt, an area of the United States which is often defined as below the 37th parallel, resulted from several forces. Perhaps most important, the federal government helped fund the Sun Belt's growth through wartime and Cold War defense spending. The Sun Belt was not built on defense spending alone. Federal funds came southward through several other channels. The federal government financed the construction of the interstate highway system precisely at the moment that the Sun Belt cities began to burgeon. Sun Belt cities also provided Northern corporations and individuals with good reasons to move.
