South
A Two-Step Odyssey on the Backroads of the Enchanted Land
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
An anecdotal, rollicking tour through America's most colorful region.
From the Tidewater through Appalachia, down the Blue Ridge country and into the sunbelt, B.C. Hall and C.T. Wood take us through the American South, inviting us to listen to its music -- blues, country, gospel, and rock -- and to the voices that have shaped its extraordinary, distinctive literature. Interweaving interviews with people both ordinary and famous with thought-provoking reflections on Southern life, history, politics, humor, religion, and cultural icons, The South is a matchless, impressionistic portrait of a people and a place.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Mason-Dixon line refers not only to a geographic division but also to a ``moral, political and economic'' culture that Hall and Wood (coauthors of Big Muddy) reexamine in a sweeping tour of the region that is chock-full of anecdote, history and fresh insights. From Virginia to Florida, Oklahoma to Texas, the authors delineate their different ambiences, heroes, villains and common folk. A matriarchal culture and an enduring attachment to the land still characterize most of the region despite all the post-Civil War changes and the differing rates of industrialization. They also argue that a sensuousness and an inclination to myth and fantasy distinguish the South from the North. The authors investigate the influence of the ecology of each state--in their view, for example, Florida is a Mediterranean enclave--on its development and character. Their tours of Jimmy Carter's Plains, Ga., and Bill Clinton's Hope, Ark., are more than a little revealing of the influences on these two leaders, as are their dips into Jefferson's Virginia, Faulkner's Mississippi and the homes of a multitude of other literary and political figures. An intimately perceptive and vividly written portrait of the region.
