One South: An Ethnic Approach to Regional Culture (Ethic Approach to Regional Culture) - Softcover

Reed, John Shelton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807110388 ISBN 13: 9780807110386

Publisher: LSU Press, 1982

Synopsis

“If it can be said that there are many Souths,” wrote W. J. Cash in The Mind of the South, “the fact remains that there is also one South.”

In the informal, engaging essays brought together in One South, John Shelton Reed focuses on the South’s strong regional identity and on the persistence, well into the last decades if the twentieth century, of Southern cultural distinctiveness. Reed argues that Southerners are similar in much the same way that members if an ethnic group are similar. He discusses the South’s shared cultural values, ranging from serious examinations of Southern violence and regional identity to considerations of Southern humor, country music, and the emergence of a new Southern middle class―epitomized by the family of former president Jimmy Carter.

Reed opens his volume with three essays dealing with the discipline of sociology and its relation to the South. The first essay proposes ways that sociology can contribute to the mainstream of regional studies; the second traces the history of sociological attention to the South in our century; and the this suggests that the sociological way of thinking may be somewhat alien to well-bred Southerners. In the next section, Reed looks at the question of group identity, arguing in one essay, “The Heart of Dixie,” that the South is best defined by locating Southerners, rather than by isolating a particular geographic region. Reed then turns his attention to minority and fringe groups within the South, including, in “Shalom, Y’All,” Southern Jews. A final section looks at some of the particular advantages and disadvantages of life in the New South today.

Reed’s explorations into the region’s culture reveal that Southerners are identifiable as a group less by obvious background characteristics―education, occupation, rural or urban residence―than by shared attitudes toward family and community, religious beliefs and practices, and violence and the private use of force: the kind of things that customarily identify ethnic groups. In this way, One South demonstrates how history and the heritage of Southernness have for now triumphed over the disintegrating forces of geography and economics.

About this title

About the Author:

John Shelton Reed, author of a dozen books, innumerable articles, and a country song about the South, served as the Chancellor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and is cofounder and Éminence Grease of the Campaign for Real Barbecue (TrueCue.org). He lives in Chatham County, North Carolina, and taught for many years at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Review:

"Each [essay] contributes in a unique and important way to the study and understanding of regional groups in general and the South in particular." (Social Science Quarterly)

"[Reed's] manner is light and engaging, while keeping up a constant flow of information; and his attitude is one of bemused tolerance toward the foibles and mysteries of social behavior. . . . If Reed had not been misdirected during his tender, formative years, he might have turned into a passing fair geographer."
   (Wilber Zelinsky, Annals of the Association of American Geographers) 

"Should be of great value to historians. . . . Reed has a delightful style, and his work is a pleasure to read."   
    (Henry G. Pitchford, Louisiana History)

"Interesting and provocative." (James A. Tinsley, Georgia Historical Quarterly)

"The Charlie Daniels of southern sociology [exhibits] wit, amiability, and a refreshingly cosmopolitan frame of analytical reference. . . . An accomplished social observer [and]  a distinctive voice, ebullient and gaily defensive about southern culture, vernacular and disarming." (Michael O'Brien, Journal of Southern History)
"After both the survey data and the rich anecdotes which Reed deploys, the reader will not be surprised that the Irish of Savannah celebrate St. Patrick's Day with green grits for breakfast, that southern colleges produce so many NFL quarterbacks, and that 'A Boy Named Sue' was such a popular song." 
   (Tony Badger, Journal of American Studies)

"The perceptive and suggestive observations of an involved scholar, . . . marked by an easy, informal style."
    (Terry L. Seip, The Public Historian)

"An important contribution to southern studies . . . . consistently intelligent and well-written. . . . Reed possesses a fine eye for social nuance and an uncanny ability for saying something original on subjects about which much has already been written." (Daniel Joseph Singal, American Journal of Sociology)

"A pleasant reminder that there are able sociologists, in the tradition of Howard W. Odum and Rupert B. Vance, seriously engaged in the study of the South and the role of regionalism in the United States. . . . Illuminating and useful.  It is not only instructive to read John Shelton Reed, it is also fun."
   (Dewey W. Grantham, Florida Historical Quarterly) 

About this edition

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0807110388
• ISBN 13: 9780807110386
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216