Customer Reviews

Dixie Rising: How the South Is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Applebome is excellent in his writing (I am a writer myself, for whatever that's worth) and has a good eye for appearances and a facility for describing them well.
Having said that, I must add that his political prejudices stick out like sore thumbs. An earlier reviewer commented that Applebome "doesn't like Republicans." I'll add an amendment to that: He doesn't like white Southerners, unless they happen to share his northeastern liberal views. His attitude toward said white Southerners is smug and condescending in the extreme, i.e., he is often at great pains to describe in sniggering terms the hairstyles worn by white Southern males, and also how they dress. He seldom does this when describing Southern blacks, whom he sees as eternally downtrodden and put upon. Also notice that he often quotes Southern whites literally, being careful to include grammatical errors and "amusing" (read: ignorant) regionalisms. He does not do this with the speech of Southern blacks.
To sum up, he is a good writer, but he makes little attempt at any kind of objectivity or balance.

Very readable personal essays and reflections on the paradigm shift to things southern. Author is somewhat condescending in his attitude, but I think he's coming around. :)

This book was discovered in the bargain bin at a book outlet and after reading it I know why it was there. The author is a yankee who lived for a time in the South and now knows all about being Southern. It made for a good laugh everytime he used the term Neo-Confederates for Southerners who honored and celebrated their Confederate heritage.
The only thing he seems to understand about the South is how important Southern politics has become in America but this is not worth reading this book.
Save your time and money and pass on this one. I paid ...too much. One of the few books I tossed away.

The title of the book states a portentous hypothesis at which the author makes a few stabs early on and then abandons. He seems unable to see anything Southern except through a prism of racial tension and conflict. What results is a series tedious vignettes having little to do with Southern influence on the rest of the Country's values, politics, and culture. A more apt title would have been: Things I Thought Were Somewhat Interesting About the South

Through a dozen chapters, Peter Applebome journeys through the modern South, discussing how Southern values have become American values, and how Southern culture has become mainstream. Since the 1960s, the South's politics have come to dominate the nation, and themes that are prominent in the South's daily life have come to be accepted across the country. These themse include individualism, race as a subtext to daily life, religion as part of political life, opposition to gun control, support for the death penalty, liberalism as a dirty word, and states rights as a viable political theory. All of these describe the South, and in the 1990s, they describe the country as well. The region's influence has grown along with its population Applebome looks at all parts of the South, including suburban Cobb County, which he says has defined itself in opposition to Atlanta. Cobb's suburban strip malls are no different than those in any suburban setting in the country. Southern cities like Atlanta and Charlotte are among the nation's business centers. Applebome looks at other parts of the South, examining the state of race relations, the ghosts of labor uprisings, the plight of the rural South, and Southerners' nostalgia for a place that never existed. All in all, Applebome paints an accurate picture of the Modern South, and is generally successful as a journalist in showing that the modern South's contributions to the nation have been both positive and negative. The region has influenced the nation's politics and culture for good and for ill.

Through a dozen chapters, Peter Applebome journeys through the modern South, discussing how Southern values have become American values, and how Southern culture has become mainstream. Since the 1960s, the South's politics have come to dominate the nation, and themes that are prominent in the South's daily life have come to be accepted across the country. These themse include individualism, race as a subtext to daily life, religion as part of political life, opposition to gun control, support for the death penalty, liberalism as a dirty word, and states rights as a viable political theory. All of these describe the South, and in the 1990s, they describe the country as well. The region's influence has grown along with its population Applebome looks at all parts of the South, including suburban Cobb County, which he says has defined itself in opposition to Atlanta. Cobb's suburban strip malls are no different than those in any suburban setting in the country. Southern cities like Atlanta and Charlotte are among the nation's business centers. Applebome looks at other parts of the South, examining the state of race relations, the ghosts of labor uprisings, the plight of the rural South, and Southerners' nostalgia for a place that never existed. All in all, Applebome paints an accurate picture of the Modern South, and is generally successful as a journalist in showing that the modern South's contributions to the nation have been both positive and negative. The region has influenced the nation's politics and culture for good and for ill.

Born and raised in New Orleans, I moved North to pursue my career. The culture up here wasn't what I expected, having been indoctrinated that the South had exclusive rights on racism and xenophobia.

But the North is clearly different than the South, especially the Deep South, and I've always had difficulty describing to Yankees just what those differences were and why they were so crucial to understand how Southerners think and why they do what they do. As an example, folks up here often wonder why the South seems so preoccupied with the Civil War; in many Southern hearts, the Civil Rights Movement of the early '60s was a continuation of that war of a century earlier, though in mind they deny such, even to themselves.

While reading this book, I was often startled to see some small observation so well describe my memories growing to a young adult there. In my opinion, Applebome has an excellent eye and is brilliant in his ability to not only discern but describe the little things that make the South what it is. He is able to spotlight what makes so much of its culture attractive to so many Americans, while turning over the rocks to show what lies beneath.

I left the South for reasons besides my career. For whatever cause, I often felt out of step with the prevailing culture. Perhaps I was born a "bleeding-heart Liberal", I've been called a "*** Lover", but for sure my views differed from many of those in my circle of family and friends. So perhaps my opinion of this book is tainted by a Yankee's disdain for the South, though where this Southern Boy got it is unclear.

Applebome seems less to judge than to describe, though some may take issue with his giving voice to certain issues; it's a Southern Tradition that "some things are best not spoken of". Those who dismiss this book as trite or superficial must, I suspect, never have lived in the South. Or they feel obliged to defend it's honor.

I've not recommended, but URGED, the reading of this book to all whom I've met who express an interest in leaving the North to live and work down South. Taking this book to heart, not as a condemnation or criticism, but as a roadmap and perhaps "cultural guidebook", will make their transition far easier with fewer long-remembered missteps.

If you've ever looked at Southern politics or politicians, or anything Southern, and wondered "What the Hell were they THINKING when they did that?", this is the book for you. And if you've heard such a thought expressed, and smiled quietly because it was obvious but hard to explain, this book will take you back home.

-gus

About what you would expect from a New York Times correspondent who has lived in Dallas and Atlanta (neither exactly the heart of the south). Doesn't like Republicans (has an odd tic of trashing Rush Limbaugh every 20 pages or so -- what does Rush have to do with the south?) and you can already guess the sarcastic asides about Newt Gingrich. A late entry Mencken Wannabe. Pass on this turkey and buy anything by John Shelton Reed or Lewis Grizzard.

Recently I reread Dixie Rising and was amazed at how clearly the author pointed out many of the political trends we are seeing now, especially how and why all the Southern Democrats became "Conservative Republicans" and what led to the rise of the politics we are seeing now. An excellent book and in many ways more relevant now than when it was published

Mr.Applebome, time in The South and Southern wife notwithstanding, is a Yankee, and, therefore, simply cannot help himself; he must toil to make the world go round. As a Southerner and a member of some of the groups at which he looks down that Yankee patrician nose- no, sorry, not the Klan - I know what it is like to spend your life having to be twice as good to be thought half as much of because of a Southern accent - fortunately, it wasn't that difficult. Applebome got it right very early in the book when, quoting Faulkner, he said "you wouldn't understand, you'd have to be born there." He was right, and he doesn't understand.