Customer Reviews

Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ths is essential reading for anyone from the South (it would not hurt Northerners either)who desires insight into their culture. The book reviews alone give one a large stack of additional reading material(I know Amazon should be pleased, for I have purchased at least three or four books based on Dr. Wilson's reviews thus far).

Another plus is that these essays and reviews are short, ranging from one to seven pages, which allows the reader to sit back and chew on what has been said before moving to the next bite.

Being a collection of essays and book reviews spanning nearly 25 years, one will notice some repetition. I say, "Anything worth saying once is worth saying again."

For those of like mind, these essays will encourage, for those of a contrary disposition, I challenge you to read at least the first 150 pages. Then let us reason together.

"Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture" is a fascinating collection of essays from Clyde Wilson. I can say 'fascinating' truthfully because Wilson's writing is actually enjoyable to read, despite the fact that it is nonfiction. The essays are grouped by content into chapters including "The War: My Myth or Yours" (the content of that chapter is obvious), "The Bloody Banner: Long May It Wave" (about the Confederate flag, and including firsthand information about the late flag battle in South Carolina), "The Other Southerners" (a discussion on slavery, black Confederates, and race relations), "The Agrarian Vision" (about agrarianism as espoused by the Twelve Southerners of "I'll Take My Stand" as well as the belief and practice of later agrarians), and "In Justice to So Fine a Country," which is a catchall bin including essays such as "Confederate Rainbow" (about Catholic and Jewish Confederates), "What to Say About Dixie?" (the South in general), "Confessions of a Neo-Confederate" (a title which Wilson does not appreciate, as he explains in his source notes), and an unusual discussion on tobacco.

"Defending Dixie" has only one real fault: an overly harsh view of the Puritans. The early Puritans who were serious about their Christianity were quite different from their "Yankee," rather than true Puritan, descendents. Where New England went wrong is something that readers will need to investigate further: some argue that its problem was that it continued wanting to be a "city on a hill" after it had deserted the only hill worth standing on.

During recent years, Dr. Clyde Wilson, a professor at the Unviersity of South Carolina, has written numerous essays regarding the Southern states--both contemporary and antebellum. These essays represent his efforts to correct the traditional (northern) versions of Southern society and culture with historical facts.

This book is a great collection of Dr. Wilson's articles and editorials on Southern History, Culture and Politics. Very insightful in understanding the Southern Culture and it's struggle for survival in an aggressive modern materialistic, superficial and cynical (or what some would call Yankee) age