Mississippi: An American Journey [Paperback]

Anthony Walton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 1997

  To most Americans, Mississippi is not a state but a scar, the place where segregation took its ugliest form and struck most savagely at its challengers.  But to many Americans, Mississippi is also home.  And it is this paradox, with all its overtones of history and heartache, that Anthony Walton—whose parents escaped Mississippi for the relative civility of the Midwest—explores in this resonant and disquieting work of travel writing, history, and memoir.

Traveling from the Natchez Trace to the yawning cotton fields of the Delta and from plantation houses to air-conditioned shopping malls, Walton challenged us to see Mississippi's memories of comfort alongside its legacies of slavery and the Klan.  He weaves in the stories of his family, as well as those of patricians and sharecroppers, redneck demagogues and martyred civil rights workers, novelists and bluesmen, black and white. Mississippi is a national saga in brilliant microcosm, splendidly written and profoundly moving.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At 30, Walton, a black man raised middle-class in Illinois, found himself questioning his identity and his heritage. So he took a journey both southerly and inward, through Mississippi, where his parents grew up and where American racism has been most entrenched. His tale meanders, combining travelogue, interviews, meditation, even his own poetry (awkwardly used to punctuate sections); one section consists of a chorus of voices, including those of Faulkner, Ellison and bluesman Robert Johnson. Certain moments resonate, such as Walton's visits to a historically preserved plantation and to the Ole Miss campus, full of Confederate memorabilia. He comes to appreciate the enormous effort of his "taciturn, often remote" father to give his son the privileges he himself never had. Walton's conclusion: we must learn the history of Mississippi to understand America's racial dilemma. His book is one of deeply felt inquiry, but it suffers from its poor organization. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Scientific American

Essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the troubled soul of the South.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679777415
• ISBN-13: 978-0679777410
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Mississippi

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I almost never read!, April 26, 2006

By 

Krissy (Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mississippi: An American Journey (Paperback)

WONDERFUL! I read this book twice in two weeks and could read it again. This should be required reading at every high school in the country. Being new to Mississippi, I was looking to find out more about my home state and picked this book up at the library. Thinking it was a travel guide, it sat on my bedside table for a week until one night I picked it up and found everything I was looking for. Thank you Mr. Walton

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh, to see ourselves as ithers see us, March 16, 2005

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A Southern Reader (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mississippi: An American journey

This book is about the author, a Mid westerner, travelling to Mississippi to learn more about the state where his people came from. It is extremely well done. The author travels around the state, interviews many prominent and not-as-prominent Mississippians about problems, solutions, and opportunites for the state to move beyond its history of severe racial problems.
In the process he summarizes a lot of history, and introduces many insights about how Mississippi got where it is and what it needs to do to move on. One thing I, as a white Mississippian with a somewhat liberal bent, found refreshing was his not falling into the trap that many of us Mississippians do of saying that all of that stuff is old news and we have moved beyond it. Things are undoubtedly better now than before, but while segregation may not be legal it is still very alive in the hearts and minds of the residents, both black and white If books like Walton's cause us to reexamine some of our "truths" about the state, it will have served an extremely useful purpose.

At any rate, for one wanting to understand more about Mississippi, reading this book is a good way to do it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A road trip through the Deep South, November 11, 2005

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A reader (Portland, ME) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mississippi: An American Journey (Paperback)

Anthony Walton lets us ride along on his journey back to his Mississippi roots. A story of pain and survival, relayed through the voices of his parents (among others), is skillfully woven with history lessons and Walton's own moving poetry. A very readable and important contribution.