Eight Books That Explain the South

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For more than a century, readers have been fascinated by the American South, a place where the dialects remain distinct, raconteurs abound (I’ve never met a southerner who can’t tell at least one good story), and American music is rooted. Their interest is rewarded by the many books written over the decades about traveling to, or through, the region. Though its tone and scope have changed over time, that genre consistently focuses on the particularity of the area: its cultural beauty, its idiosyncrasies, the poverty of many of its people, and the cruelty of its racial regime.

My most recent book, , a hybrid work mixing history, travelogue, creative nonfiction, and personal discovery, is part of this tradition. I invite readers to reconsider the South along with me, and to confront its centrality in the building and being of the United States. Any honest rendering of who we are