South to America
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
“An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South—and thus of America—by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.”
—Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.
This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.
Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Imani Perry’s dazzling nonfiction book explores the heritage and identity of the American South. Perry, a celebrated author and professor of African American studies at Princeton University, travels throughout the South, from the predominantly white Appalachias to the cotton-rich Black Belt, reflecting on the deep complexities of this historically divided region. Taking us through key historical events—from the Wilmington white supremacist insurrection in 1898 all the way to the death of Trayvon Martin—Perry describes each location, each story, and each time period with incredible detail and care, infusing her essays with personal memories from her own Alabama childhood. She narrates the audiobook with both passion and precision, making it an enthralling listen. Broad in scope but intimate in its telling, South to America is a captivating love letter to the South in all its beautiful, battered glory.