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Title: Dixie Rising: How the South Is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture by Peter Applebome ISBN: 0-15-600550-6 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.77 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must-read for all thinking of moving South
Comment: Born and raised in New Orleans, I moved North to pursue my career. The culture up here wasn't what I expected, having been indoctrinated that the South had exclusive rights on racism and xenophobia.
But the North is clearly different than the South, especially the Deep South, and I've always had difficulty describing to Yankees just what those differences were and why they were so crucial to understand how Southerners think and why they do what they do. As an example, folks up here often wonder why the South seems so preoccupied with the Civil War; in many Southern hearts, the Civil Rights Movement of the early '60s was a continuation of that war of a century earlier, though in mind they deny such, even to themselves.
While reading this book, I was often startled to see some small observation so well describe my memories growing to a young adult there. In my opinion, Applebome has an excellent eye and is brilliant in his ability to not only discern but describe the little things that make the South what it is. He is able to spotlight what makes so much of its culture attractive to so many Americans, while turning over the rocks to show what lies beneath.
I left the South for reasons besides my career. For whatever cause, I often felt out of step with the prevailing culture. Perhaps I was born a "bleeding-heart Liberal", I've been called a "*** Lover", but for sure my views differed from many of those in my circle of family and friends. So perhaps my opinion of this book is tainted by a Yankee's disdain for the South, though where this Southern Boy got it is unclear.
Applebome seems less to judge than to describe, though some may take issue with his giving voice to certain issues; it's a Southern Tradition that "some things are best not spoken of". Those who dismiss this book as trite or superficial must, I suspect, never have lived in the South. Or they feel obliged to defend it's honor.
I've not recommended, but URGED, the reading of this book to all whom I've met who express an interest in leaving the North to live and work down South. Taking this book to heart, not as a condemnation or criticism, but as a roadmap and perhaps "cultural guidebook", will make their transition far easier with fewer long-remembered missteps.
If you've ever looked at Southern politics or politicians, or anything Southern, and wondered "What the Hell were they THINKING when they did that?", this is the book for you. And if you've heard such a thought expressed, and smiled quietly because it was obvious but hard to explain, this book will take you back home.
-gus
Rating: 2
Summary: Home Is Where The Heart Is
Comment: Enough has been said in the previous reviews of this book, either for or against, to give people a sense of how others feel about it. My one contention with the whole work is this, Mr. Applebome, a Yankee living in the South, is an outsider looking in. To me, the book is the equivalent of me, a native Georgian, walking into your house and saying "I like the painting over the mantle, but the color of the walls is atrocious." In the end, it doesn't matter what I think of your home, you're the one living there. The times I've been "up yonder", I've quickly realized how different Northerners were from Southerners, but, since I don't live there, I don't worry how "those people" think and do things. One review recommended this book to people thinking of moving to the South, if you're one of those people wanting to move down here, just remember, you're only visiting, don't try to change us or our ways, it won't work. If you want to know why, it's for this simple reason, a homemade cat-head bisquit stuffed with ham, egg and cheese (with extra salt just in case you didn't get enough in the ham and eggs while cooking them) will always taste better than a bagel with cream cheese. If the State of the Union and where we are headed and how things are looking country-wise is important to you, you might, and I stress "might" enjoy this book. If you only concern yourself with your own life and your worries don't extend past your own front yard (i.e. you mind your own business and let the rest of the world take care of itself) then pass it by.
Rating: 5
Summary: Prescient, persuasive, provocative and astute.
Comment: Mixing fact and anecdote with a keen eye and ear for the rhymes and reasons that shape and have shaped the fabric of the american south, Applebome's book acheives a kind of birds eye view of a world whose influence has been obscured in myth and misunderstanding. Applebome clearly knows his territory well, and has put in the miles of travel and years of study to reach a level of insight that goes beyond anything else I have read on the subject. His polymath's approach includes a wide spectrum of topics from the political to the musical--and he shows us how and why the south has emerged from its volatile history to a place where it now stands at the vanguard of so many trends and developments in our society. This is readable and entertaining scholarship from someone who has lived with his subject and come to know it like few others. Very highly recommended.
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Title: The Rise of Southern Republicans by Earl Black, Merle Black ISBN: 067400728X Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Mothers of the South: Portraiture of the White Tenant Farm Woman by Margaret Jarman Hagood, Anne Firor Scott, Marion Post, Dorothea Lange ISBN: 0813916968 Publisher: University of Virginia Press Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup ISBN: 0486411435 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 06 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Wallace : The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor George Wallace by Marshall Frady ISBN: 067977128X Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 03 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865 by Stephen V. Ash ISBN: 031229493X Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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