A Mythic Land Apart: Reassessing Southerners and Their History

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Utilizing biographical, demographic, political, social, and cultural approaches, the nine essays in this book provide a probing look at the South's diversity and its important place in the national past. The authors explore the tension between the South's well-worn mythic images and the diversity that bred such influential leaders as Philip Mazzei, Henry Clay, A. B. Happy Chandler, and John Sherman Cooper. The chapters illustrate the South's complexity in assessing the region's plain folk, slave panics, military strategy, racial reform, and temperance movement. The book untangles the South's mythology and offers fresh and penetrating insights into the ongoing reassessment of the region. Written by leading experts on the South's rich past, this book provides nine essays on the history of the South. Utilizing biographical, demographic, political, social, and cultural approaches, the essays provide a probing look at the South's diversity and its important place in the national past. The authors explore the tension between the South's well-worn images and the diversity that bred such influential leaders as Philip Mazzei, Henry Clay, A. B. Happy Chandler, and John Sherman Cooper. The South has always been a land of complexity and change. A Mythic Land Apart illustrates this in assessing the region's plain folk, slave panics, military strategy, racial reform, and temperance movement. Whether captured in fiction, film, or historical literature, the South's history remains intertwined with its mythic self. The essays in this book untangle the South's mythololgy and offer fresh and penetrating insights into the ongoing reassessment of the region.

Reviews

"It is a worthwhile text to anyone that would like to see an unbiased overview of how the South evolved along with the rest of the country."-
A Mythic Land Apart, stands as a worthy study in Southern political and cultural history. It covers a wide range of topics, presents them in a highly readable manner, and strengthens Roland's contention that the South should indeed be considered, as Allen Tate once wrote, "Uncle Sam's other province."-Southern Historian
It is a worthwhile text to anyone that would like to see an unbiased overview of how the South evolved along with the rest of the country.-
The essays reflect the careful attention to craft that has highlighted the mentor's own scholarship.-The Journal of Southern History
These well-crafted essays, reflect the teaching skills and extensive interests of "Charlie" Roland, who can take pride in having trained so many able students.-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"The essays reflect the careful attention to craft that has highlighted the mentor's own scholarship."-The Journal of Southern History
"These well-crafted essays, reflect the teaching skills and extensive interests of "Charlie" Roland, who can take pride in having trained so many able students."-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"A Mythic Land Apart, stands as a worthy study in Southern political and cultural history. It covers a wide range of topics, presents them in a highly readable manner, and strengthens Roland's contention that the South should indeed be considered, as Allen Tate once wrote, "Uncle Sam's other province.""-Southern Historian

Author Bio

JOHN DAVID SMITH is Graduate Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina State University. His most recent books include The Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Greenwood, 1988), Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (Greenwood, 1990), Anti-Black Thought (11 vols., 1993), and Black Voices from Reconstruction (1996). THOMAS H. APPLETON, JR., serves as editor of publications for the Kentucky Historical Society. He is collaborating with Charles P. Roland on a biography of former Kentucky governor, U.S. Senator, and Commisioner of baseball Albert B. Happy Chandler.