Minding the South / Edition 1

by John Shelton Reed

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412852524
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	09/30/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Shelton Reed taught for thirty-one years at the University of North Carolina, where he directed the Howard Odum Institute for Research in Social Science and helped to found the university's Center for the Study of the American South. A founding coeditor of the quarterly "Southern Cultures, "he has received many fellowships and prizes and has been president of the Southern Sociological Society and the Southern Association for Public Opinion Research. He was once a judge at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and in 2001 he was elected to the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He lives and writes in Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

These essays are both timed and timeless. Timed because they are products of a man and his era. They are his thoughts, shaped by what was happening to him when he wrote them. Timeless because they offer a historical perspective on the region and its people. This is a fine book.” —Harvey H. Jackson, The Journal of Southern History “Any reader, whether interested in the usual subjects about the South or not, will learn new things about the South from reading Reed’s engaging book.” —Larry D. Griffin, Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies "Informatively written . . . Minding the South is a wonderful celebration of the American South and its culture—a regional society which has resisted being assimilated by mainstream United States in order to keep its own distinctive personality. . . . Minding the South is a splendid and enduring tribute to American Southern culture and custom." —Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

Reed just gets better and better.

Richmond Times-Dispatch