Whistling Dixie: Dispatches from the South - Hardcover

Reed, John Shelton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826207588 ISBN 13: 9780826207586

Publisher: University of Missouri Press, 1990

Synopsis

Reviews Southern traditions, culture, values, and politics

About this title

About the Author:

John Shelton Reed is William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was director of the Howard Odum Institute for Research in Social Science for twelve years and helped to found the university's Center for the Study of the American South. He grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, did his undergraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University before going to Chapel Hill in 1969. The eighteen books he has written or edited include 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South and (most recently) Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue, both written with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed. His articles have appeared in professional and popular periodicals ranging from Science to Southern Living, and he was founding co-editor of the quarterly Southern Cultures.

Review:

"Reed knows his region intimately, probably as well as anyone around, and manages the impressive feat of regarding it both seriously and lightly."  (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post)
 
"An H. L. Mencken of Dixie. . . . Witty, clever, irreverent. . . . His snappy, sassy comments will tickle your ear."
    (Bruce Clayton, Kansas City Star)
 
"Wry observations and tongue-in-cheek comments . . . .  Some of them will have you shaking your head, some will bring a grin, and a few will leave you laughing out loud.  Every one, though, will start you thinking." 
    (Southern Living)

"[Reed's] honesty and humor draw the reader in. . . . He provides the front-porch atmosphere of an unsappy Garrison Keillor. . . . And it's refreshing to hear a genuine Southern voice" (Rick Henderson, Reason)
  
"Provocative . . . . instructive and amusing. . . ." (Washington Post Book World)
 
"Funny and erudite and annoying." (San Francisco Review)
 
"He's not just whistling Dixie; he's singing four-part harmony." (Greensboro News and Record)
 
"Humorous, perceptive. . . . His recipe for Vienna sausage sandwiches will turn every stomach north of Richmond - but otherwise readers will find this collection palatable." (Publishers Weekly)
 
"Good-natured wit and a practiced eye for the ridiculous. . . . Nearly always succeeds in saying something intelligent about even the silliest subject." (Journal of Southern History)
 
"[He] has chosen a section of the American landscape and plowed it well. . . . He writes with a honeyed sarcasm."  (Gary Alan Fine, Sewanee Review)
 
"A writer this funny is dangerous." (Michael Skube, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
 
"Infused with a sociological sensibility. . . hark[s] back to the pioneer days of sociology when social criticism was acceptable. . . . Students of sociology should be required to read this book . . . to convince them that at least one sociologist can write clearly; has a sense of humor; and is not afraid to express opinion." (Choice)
 
"The work of a witty, clear-minded, well and broadly informed scholar, one blessed with the skill and daring to express himself without ambiguity or obfuscation . . . and an unabashed willingness to express independent judgment." (Ernest Campbell, Contemporary Sociology)
 
"Reed stalks his . . . quarries with deft wit, outrageous assertions, and the single-mindedness of a pickup truck in search of a road kill. . . . A thoroughly enjoyable volume that will elicit laughter, second thoughts, and brisk discussion." (William Bruce Wheeler, Georgia Historical Quarterly) 

"Few have contributed more to an understanding of the modern South than has Reed. Whistling Dixie . . . continues the tradition of excellence that characterizes his previous studies."
     (James O. Breedon, Mississippi Quarterly)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Missouri Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0826207588
• ISBN 13: 9780826207586
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264