south to america

Description

“An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South—and thus of America—by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.” —Isabel Wilkerson A Most Anticipated Book From: The New York Times • TIME • Oprah Daily • Vulture • Essence • Esquire • W Magazine • Atlanta Journal-Constitution • PopSugar • Book Riot • Chicago Review of Books • Electric Literature • Lit Hub An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole. This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life. Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line. Categories: Society, Politics & Philosophy - Social Sciences Year: 2022 Publisher: Ecco Language: English Pages: 432 ISBN 10: 0062977407 File: EPUB, 2.70 MB Cover Title Page Dedication Epigraph Contents A Note from the Author Introduction I. Origin Stories An Errand into Wilderness: Appalachia Mother Country: Virginia Animated Roulette: Louisville Mary’s Land: Annapolis and the Caves Ironic Capital: Washington, DC II. The Solidified South The Clearing: Upper Alabama Tobacco Road in the Bible Belt: North Carolina King of the South: Atlanta More than a Memorial: Birmingham Pearls Before Swine: Princeton to Nashville When Beale Street Talks: Memphis Soul of the South: The Black Belt III. Water People Home of the Flying Africans: The Low Country Pistoles and Flamboyán: Florida Immobile Women: Mobile Magnolia Graves and Easter Lilies: New Orleans Paraíso: The Bahamas and Havana Conclusion Acknowledgments Index About the Author Also by Imani Perry Copyright About the Publisher Copyright Title Page Dedication Contents Chapter 1: ‘I’m thinking’ – Oh, but are you? Chapter 2: Renegade perception Chapter 3: The Pushbacker sting Chapter 4: ‘Covid’: The calculated catastrophe Chapter 5: There is no ‘virus’ Chapter 6: Sequence of deceit Chapter 7: War on your mind Chapter 8: ‘Reframing’ insanity Chapter 9: We must have it? So what is it? Chapter 10: Human 2.0 Chapter 11: Who controls the Cult? Chapter 12: Escaping Wetiko Postscript Appendix: Cowan-Kaufman-Morell Statement on Virus Isolation Bibliography Index