1st Edition

Minding the South

By John Shelton Reed Copyright 2003
    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    For over three decades John Shelton Reed has been "minding" the South. He is the author or editor of thirteen books about the region. Despite his disclaimer concerning the formal study of Southern history, Reed has read widely and in depth about the South. His primary focus is upon Southerners' present-day culture, but he knows that one must approach the South historically in order to understand the place and its people.

    Why is the South so different from the rest of America? Rupert Vance, Reed's predecessor in sociology at Chapel Hill, once observed that the existence of the South is a triumph of history over geography and economics. The South has resisted being assimilated by the larger United States and has kept a personality that is distinctly its own. That is why Reed celebrates the South.

    The chapters in this book cover everything from great thinkers about the South—Eugene D. Genovese, C. Vann Woodward, M. E. Bradford—to the uniqueness of a region that was once a hotbed of racism, but has recently attracted hundreds of thousands of black people transplanted from the North. There are also chapters about Southerners who have devoted their talents to politics, soft drinks, rock and roll, and jewelry design. Reed writes with wit and Southern charm, never afraid to speak his mind, even when it comes to taking his beloved South to task. While readers may not share all his opinions, most will agree that John Shelton Reed is one of the best "South watchers" there is.

    Introduction to the Transaction Edition
    Preface
    The Three Souths
    I. The Journalistic Eye
    The Mind of the South and Southern Distinctiveness
    The Times Looks at Dixie
    Among the Believers
    The Secret History of Civil Rights
    The Smoke Never Clears
    One Tough Lady
    A South That Never Was
    II. History and Historians
    American Weed
    Slaves View Slavery
    Slipshod Totalitarianism
    Southern Intellect
    Southern Studies Abroad
    III. Friends and Masters
    C. Vann Woodward
    Eugene D. Genovese
    M. E. Bradford
    IV. What They Say about Dixie
    Of Collard Greens and Kings
    Red and Yellow, Black and White
    Telling about the South
    The Imagined South
    V. Six Southerners
    Lady Propagandist of the Old South
    The Man from New Orleans
    The World's Best-Selling Novelist
    Mover and Shaker
    Hardy Perennial
    The Southern Elvis
    The End of Elvis
    VI. Southern Culture, High and Low
    Southern Laughter
    A Cokelorist at Work
    The National Magazine of the South
    Carolina Couch Crime
    VII. Southern Lit (and One Movie)
    Taking a Stand
    Portrait of Atlanta
    Nebbish from Mississippi
    Hollywood Chain Gangs
    VIII. Reflections
    The Banner That Won't Stay Furled
    The Most Southern State?
    Brits and Grits
    Missing
    He's Baaack
    If at First You Don't Secede . . .
    Party Down
    Our Kind of Yankee
    IX. But Let's Talk about Me
    Mixing in the Mountains
    Among the Baptists
    Choosing the South
    Sources

    Biography

    John Shelton Reed