This article argues that Shmuel N. Eisenstadt’s theoretical framework contains some elements of modernization theory threatening to neglect the contingencies of social processes and the possible breaks within historical trajectories. This is demonstrated via an analysis of the history of the US-American South that cannot be interpreted with an Eisenstadtian framework without seriously misrepresenting this particular region. It is argued that the development of “Dixie” was not a predetermined process which led to a smooth integration into US-society, but a path which was decisively influenced by many unforeseen factors and events in various periods of its history.