Southern Folk, Plain & Fancy: Native White Social Types (Mercer University Lamar Memorial Lectures) [Paperback]

John Shelton Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0820310239 | ISBN-13: 978-0820310237

Creating a sort of periodic table of the southern populace, Southern Folk, Plain and Fancy catalogs and describes the several social types--gentleman and lady, "lord of the lash" and cunning belle, fun-loving "good old boy," depraved redneck, and other figures--that have animated the region since antebellum times.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Drawing on television, film, and country music, Reed creates a typology of white southerners that includes the hero, the villain, the fool, and the victim. In doing so, he provides a strong argument for the roles of the media, labeling theory, and intergroup relations in the creation and maintenance of stereotypes . . . Reed's book is highly readable and entertaining, but with sociological substance as well."--Choice

About the Author

John Shelton Reed is founding coeditor of the journal Southern Cultures and William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (July 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820310239
• ISBN-13: 978-0820310237
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #565,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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 has written or edited eighteen books, four of them with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable for a True Understanding of Southerners, February 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Southern Folk, Plain & Fancy: Native White Social Types (Mercer University Lamar Memorial Lectures) (Hardcover)

The South and its people have been subject to more than a double ration of misinformation and stereotypes despite the insistence or even obsession of southerners to tell about the South. A suitable corrective for these oversimplifications comes in the writings of John Shelton Reed. Reed, a University of North Carolina sociologist, manages an accurate, sympathetic, and amusing characterization of important southern "types." There's something for everyone here. This book, together with Florence King's SOUTHERN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN and some of Lewis Grizzard's works, gives a good introduction to Southern types. Of course a a warning is necessary: while Southerners, as Roy Blount, Jr. observed, like to act typical, they also take a sheer delight in being unpredictable just for the holy hell of it.

Reed knows his types: the Good Ole Boy, the Aristocrat, etc. These people the southern landscape and provide entertainment for each other. These are people who are apt to equate loving the Lord and SEC football, and favor Coke to Pepsi.

I suppose one could quibble about some types that he omitted, but this is a short and enjoyable book and well-worth the reading. Hell fire, podners: Professor John Shelton Reed is a wonderous writer who will bring you to a smile like good barbecue.