The bold thesis of this Harvard PHD native of Birmingham Princeton historian is that you must understand The South in order to understand America. Just published. Essential reading.
The author makes the case that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that understanding its history and culture is the key to understanding nation as a whole.
The author is a native of Alabama.
This book is an extended personal meditation on The South with geographical particulars as the author traveled to iconic Southern locations.
West Virginia separated from Virginia over slavery. West Virginia may have so saved the Union. P. 7
Virginia is the mother country. I have always personally believed this. I wish I had grown up in Virginia. P. 33
Jefferson couldn't stand the idea of free black people alongside white ones. His preferred solution was to send them back to Africa. White supremacists have said this forever. P. 45
Jefferson gets rough treatment in this book and rightly so.
Hunter Thompson's 1970 rendition of the utter bacchanal of the Derby crowd, titled "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" was a necessary provocation of the Derby image. He depicted a no-holds-barred excess of liquor and sex, the sloppy underside of the planter elite on full display.Those at the top of the social hierarchy used the occasion to teeter on the edge, to take risks, to live precariously (if only for a quick moment) like those people whose lives they made vulnerable. P. 58
Black bartenders in Kentucky over horse racing may have invented the Derby favorite the mint julep. There were black jockeys at Churchill Downs until Jim Crow shut them down. One story is that Jim Crow lived in Louisville.
Distilleries emerged in antebellum times and depended on slave slavery. Did anything antebellum not depend on slavery? P. 59
Racial injustice has a long, long history in this country. Racial justice is rare. P. 62
The author seeks info on a relative in Maryland. Doing ancestry research for African Americans can be difficult especially if the ancestor goes back to before there was a United States. P. 63-64
Now Maryland seems Northern. No one would consider Maryland Southern. P. 65
The famous Dred Scott once lived on Oakwood land in the Huntsville area. P. 106
I had no idea Oakwood has such a rich history.
Oakwood's student body is 87% black. P. 107
The Seventh-Day church is ethnically diverse. P. 108
Muscle Shoals and FAME. P. 109
She refers to the German penetration in Huntsville as the legacy of the Nazis in Alabama P. 117
The religious right makes a virtue of White supremacy. P. 121
The author does not claim a firm theological doctrine despite being raised in the South, but is okay. P. 139
Atlanta bustles. I say let it bustle. I have no need of Atlanta even a bustling Atlanta. P. 142
The South is soft drink central. Atlanta is Coca-Cola city, literally and symbolically. Pepsi-Cola hails from New Bern, North Carolina. RC comes from Columbus, Georgia. An RC and a moon pie would keep you going all day. The Chattanooga Bakery has been making moon pies since 1917. Mountain Dew took its name after moonshine. So much sugar it can make you feel high. Southerners drink more soda than anybody else. Graphico is of Alabama vintage as is Buffalo Roc, a potent ginger soda. P. 143-144
Atlanta University 's Talented Tenth. P. 147
The author is from Birmingham. P. 152
"This is the place I call home." P. 155
The world freezes Birmingham in 1963. P. 166
Interviewing Angela Davis at Boutwell. Praising Judge Clemons. P. 169
Ensley is a tough place as is Pratt City. P. 174
About Princeton. Jonathan Edwards is buried there. Madison took a slave with him to college. P. 179
Dissing Wilson. P. 181
Cornelius Vanderbilt endowed Vanderbilt. P. 184
The author grew up watching white sit-coms. Her favorite Hee Haw character was Minnie Pearl. P. 185
James and Florida came up to Chicago from Mississippi. P. 186
The intellectuals at Vanderbilt who did not like being called rednecks and backward. Wrote I"ll Take My Stand in 1956. One of them was Robert Penn Warren who defended segregation laws. These Agrarians took exception to those who cast aspersions on Southern norms and traditions. Defend Stonewall and Marse Robert, but don't mention slavery. In the New Criticism they talked text, text, text, but ignored constext. How consentient to ignore the darkness all around them. Warren moved on from "one time apologist for segregation" but how far did he move? Like Shelby Foote, his admiration for the Jacksons and the Lees never died. P. 193-194
The glory of Fisk University. P. 195
The glory of Beale Street in Memphis. P. 199
I-40 between Nashville and Memphis is called "Music Highwy." P. 201
Black folks scorned Elvis.
The long, ugly history of sanitation workers in Memphis preceded 1968 by decades. P. 202
Little Richard resented Elvis for drawing attention away from his act. P. 204
The real racist is Pat Boone. P. 204
FedEx was founded in Memphis a huge deal when it happened. P. 205
Memphis is more Mississippi than Tennessee. P. 207
The author comments that the Constitution created a space for a slave society. P. 209
"Highly favored," a gospel term, is a very Southern term. I think of the song by the Gatlilns. P. 211
About Richard Wright. P. 214
Readers care about Bigger Thomas. I certainly do. P. 215
How the Black Belt started Whitney's cotton gin. The rise of the US as a world power rested on cotton. P.217
MLK might have been thinking of Hale County, Alabama. Nine of the ten poorest counties in Alabama are in the Black Belt. P. 221
Montgomery is a town unlike Birmingham. If you neglect to attend to the past you will ignore in the present. America's sense of exceptionalism is rooted in The South. P. 229
The author visits Alabama State. Most white people in Alabama have no idea of the dramatic history of this university. P. 236
Jackson, Mississippi, is urban but also very country. P. 241
Crafting is big in The South. Hobby Lobby sees itself as very wholesome. P. 244
The author sees the legacy of slavery everywhere amazing that one political part is trying to remove any discussion of the legacy of slavery.
The author preaches against the idea that The South is a monolith by stressing its diversity.
In the Low Country. P. 255
Water people. P. 256
The cost of desegregation. P. 265-266
Flannery O'Connor stresses The South's eccentricity. P, 267
There will always be things in The South that we will revile. One of these things is the prejudice and bigotry of O'Connor which cannot be denied despite her spotlight on The South's violence and eccentricities. P. 268
The South is both Christ-centered and Christ-haunted. P, 269
Florida is a pistol. P. 278
The term "cracker" may have originated from the sound of the overseer's whip during slavery P. 281
But there are rival stories about the origins of the word "cracker." P. 282
In Florida there are dollar stores everywhere. The dollar store was given to us by The South. P. 289
From her experience the author says that dollar stores are usually poorly lit. P. 290
The South is the most military part of the US. Southerners are the most likely to enlist. Southern presidents are the most likely to go to war. The marital ardor is an outgrowth of the aristocratic planter class. P. 293
Florida is a wold of its own but Miami is so Southern, P. 305
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