While traditional industries like textile or lumber mills have received a majority of the scholarly attention devoted to southern economic development, Faith in Bikinis presents an untold story of the New South, one that explores how tourism played a central role in revitalizing the southern economy and transforming southern culture after the Civil War.

An untold story of the southern coastline that explores how tourism played a central role in revitalizing the southern economy and transformed its culture. By negotiating the rigid religious, social, and racial practices of the inland cotton country and the more indulgent consumerism of vacationers, many from the North, a New South emerged.