Sentence:  The fact that he has cast over those materials the light of a skeptical mind does not make him any the less Southern , I rather think , for the South has <WSD>been</WSD> no more solid than other regions except in the political and related areas where patronage and force and intimidation and fear may produce a surface uniformity . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)