“Beltway politics” are not the only barrier to efficiency in government. Despite what they say, the American people have long preferred an inefficient federal government that they could shape rather than an efficient government that they could not. Continue Reading Sarah S. Elkind: The Allure of an Inefficient Government
[This article is cross-posted from Pop South.] Oh, for goodness sake! The Republican candidates for president went South and the next thing you know Mitt Romney touted “cheesy grits” and practiced saying “ya’ll,” and Rick Santorum adopted a hick accent and told people “I got kin here in Mississippi. I’m not sure. . . (don’t say “what I think about it!”). .… Continue Reading Karen L. Cox: Republican Candidates in the South: A Confederacy of Dunces. So, too, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir & Co.
In this excerpt from ‘American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta,’ Nan Elizabeth Woodruff examines what led up to the massacre of black sharecroppers in 1919 Phillips County, Arkansas, and how the official narrative of events was fabricated and disseminated by white leaders. Continue Reading Excerpt: “American Congo” by Nan Elizabeth Woodruff
In this excerpt from “War! What is it Good For?” by Kimberly L. Phillips, the author discusses the antiwar activism of Langston Hughes and Nina Simone. Continue Reading Excerpt: War! What is it Good For?, by Kimberley L. Phillips
In this excerpt from Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels & Stage Europeans in African American Performance, McAllister describes some 19th-century black fashionistas in New York and Charleston. Continue Reading Book excerpt: Whiting Up, by Marvin McAllister
The fourth bag, the one for which O’Hair had to pay, contained weapons, essential implements of warfare that speak to the harsh conditions one would expect to find in a war zone. Yet no one has ever asked what is, in my opinion, the most important question: What was in the other three bags? Continue Reading Meredith Lair: What Was in the Other Three Bags?
An interview with Donald Goodman, manager of the Eugene Walter estate and co-editor of ‘The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink.’ Continue Reading Interview: Donald Goodman on the Legacy of Eugene Walter
In an excerpt from ‘Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger’s Life & Musical Journey,’ biographer Bill C. Malone relates Seeger’s introduction to Hazel Dickens. Continue Reading Bill C. Malone: Music from the True Vine – An Excerpt
As a new documentary film about the Loving v. Virginia case appears, we look back to Fay Botham’s book for some of the religious and legal aspects of the case. Includes an excerpt from the book. Continue Reading Learn about and learn from Loving v Virginia
Historian Karen L. Cox’s book Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture is prompting lively discussion and an art exhibit. Includes video. Continue Reading Karen L. Cox’s book inspires new conversation, new images of the South
Yesterday’s Boston Globe features an article by R. Blakeslee Gilpin, author of the forthcoming John Brown Still Lives!: America’s Long Reckoning with Violence, Equality, and Change. Gilpin explains how what we now know as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” originated as “John Brown’s Body” among soldiers in Boston. John Brown, the subject of Gilpin’s book, was a radical abolitionist–he… Continue Reading “Why they sang about John Brown”–R. Blakeslee Gilpin for the Boston Globe
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War epic, Gone with the Wind. The book and its characters are being celebrated and discussed around the world. From Atlanta to Calcutta, people have weighed in on why they like the book, how many times… Continue Reading Karen L. Cox: GONE WITH THE WIND as Southern History
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