In a provocative exploration of the
triumphant South--the region that increasingly defines
American politics and values--the former Atlanta bureau
chief of The New York Times illuminates the people, places,
and passions of this influential section of the country--an
area that has effectively decided the outcome of every
presidential election in the past 30
years.
Everywhere he goes,
Applebome sees evidence of the past lying close to the
surface of Southern life. It is not that Applebome's
Southerners live in the past - they are far too American for
that - but that they have little choice but to live with the
past, whether they acknowledge it or not....They find it
hard to explain that the South is more than it appears from
the interstate highways and on the evening news. Southerners
of all descriptions should be grateful to Peter Applebome,
one more Yankee transplant, for spreading the news and for
writing one of the best portrayals of the South in
years.
Edward L. Ayers - The Washington
Post
In this thoughtful and
provocative book, Peter Applebome, an Atlanta correspondent
of The New York Times, offers a striking thesis and a
searching question. His thesis in "Dixie Rising'' is that
the South, once to exception to generalizations about
American character and institutions, has today become
America itself, defining all the key qualities of the
country as a whole.. His question, as yet unanswered, is
which South will lead the way into the next century? The one
that offers the best hope in America for racial peace and
social .progress, or the one that embraces narrow religious
dogmas, racial intolerance and an economic individualism
that grinds up workers without regard for industrial safety.
William Chafe - The New York Times
Book Review
Applebome delivers a
nuanced, insightful and sometimes even affectionate
appreciation of the South. With an astute eye and often
painterly writing, Applebome takes us to such places as
ultraconservative Cobb County, Ga., dollar-hungry Charlotte,
N.C., and the deserted and dirt-poor strand of bakcwater
burgs of the Mississippi Delta, using each visit to tell us
something about the modern-day South.
David Greising - Business
Week
Applebome's first
book, Dixie Rising, is a thoroughly engaging, frequently
fascinating, often appalling series of journalistic forays
into "the crevices and around the edges of the belly of the
beast from the Carolina Piedmont to the Mississippi Gulf
Coast....a terrific book.''
Warren Goldstein - The Philadelphia
Inquirer
There might never have
been a more honest evaluation of this land we love, and
Applebome's book is every bit as good as it is honest. This
might be the definitive book about the South of the 1990s.
Danny McKenzie, Jackson Clarion-Ledger His observations, his
reflections on what he has seen and his wry and sprightly
prose put Dixie Rising in the front rank of recent accounts
of the South. Applebome is a great noticer, with an
especially good eye for the weirdness treasured by those of
us who love the South.
John Shelton Reed - The Oxford
American
As pungent and
thought-provoking (and as sweet in spots) as mango pickle.
He's playful and describes things wonderfully and has a kind
of visceral, unexpected hopefulness. Colin Campbell. The
Atlanta Constitution. There have been other, thicker books
written about the South in recent years, but none have
brought together the region's story with as much
perspective, thoroughness or understanding. For those
reasons, this is an important book, which anyone interested
in the history of this often glorious, frequently wretched,
blood-stained land should read.
Frederick Burger - The Aniston,
Ala., Star
His answers are
persuasive and provocative - and never simple. Like the
Gothic novels it produced, the Southern narrative is imbued
with dark subtext, reflecting the polarities that have
always marked the region: white and black, rich and poor,
hospitable and hateful.
Jeff Turrentine - The Dallas
Morning News
Peter Applebome's
wonderful new book is an offbeat, unconventional portrait of
the South unlike anything ever written. Applebome has a love
affair with Dixie, but one with attitude and humor and an
astringent eye for what makes the South both fascinating and
unreconstructed.
Pat Conroy - Author of The Prince
of Tides
A gem of a book,
written by an able and intelligent journalist.
Rich Oppel - The Austin
American-Statesman
Eminently balanced...A
shrewd, fair and entertaining guide to the
region.
Tony Horwitz -
Slate
Applebome has written
a truly impressive, balanced and penetrating account of life
in the South today. Applebome is a shoe-leather street
reporter, a keen observer of the South's passing parade, a
precise researcher, adroit interviewer and brilliant
writer.
Starr Smith - The Montgomery
Advertiser
Yankee though he may
be, Applebome has absorbed that special Southern talent for
spinning perfect-pitch yarns which illuminate the subtle
complexities of the nation's most implacably distinctive
region. Applebome's closing chapter rises to the level of
W.J. Cash's legendary meditation of 1941, "The Mind of the
South.''
Ray Jenkins - The Baltimore
Sun
"Nobody is keeping a
keener eye on the contemporary South than Peter Applebome.
In Dixie Rising he has fashioned a provocative ,
near-perfect balance of the conflicting currents shaping the
region and what they say about the nation.
John Egerton - Author of Speak Now
Against the Day
A delicious
contradiction of commonly held views of the region. While he
may be a relatively young witness to the Southern
experience, Applebome makes up for it by his inexhaustible
energy and intense inquiry into finding out how things work
down here and why. And he does it all with a light touch of
humor that does not smack of mockery of the South's
foibles.
Bill Minor - Mississippi Syndicated
Columnist
Remarkably lively and
sweet-tempered. He seems to have talked to everyone, read
every classic Southern writer, gone down every highway in
search of the spirit of the South.
David Warsh - The Boston
Globe
A refreshing and
informative look at the South with enough wit to assure it
does not become dull.
Ted Bryant - The Birmingham
Post-Herald
I recommend this book
to anyone who liked to read and think about the
South...Amused, bemused, bothered and at time perplexed by
what he finds, Applebome conveys these feelings in clear,
concise discussions and desriptions that represent someof
the best journalism I've come across in a while.
Hardy Jackson III - The Mobile
Register
There are few
journalists at work in the country today better qualified to
take us South again, and to try to make sense of the
nation's most perplexing - and now most important - place.
For people still attempting to dope out what, exactly, is
"Southern'' or whether there is a "New South'' or whether
there is still a distinctive regional identity lurking in a
world, as Applebome puts it, of Bennigan's and Blockbusters,
this book is the perfect primer. Applebome is a diligent
reporter and an elegant writer.
John Meacham - The Washington
Monthly
Because the author
zeroes in on race and lets Southerners tell their own
stories, this is a compelling, disturbing, at times
inspiring book.
Publishers' Weekly
Applebome's keen eye
for telling details and wide-angle perspective on historical
trends renders a fascinating, far-reaching portrait of the
South - a must-read for students not only of Southern
culture's virtues and vices, but of the nation's as
well.
Kirkus Reviews
Applebome used
statistics, previous historical and journalistic sources and
his own vivid reporting to persuasively argue that "the most
striking aspect of American life at the century's end - in a
way that would have been utterly unimaginable three decades
ago at the height of the civil rights era - is how much the
country looks like the South.''
Jan Cottingham - The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette
Applebome is a
sympathetic writer. "Dixie Rising comes alive with its
characters. "Dixie Rising'' deserves a read even from
far-away, smug West Coast residents who believe they are on
the cutting edge of the nation's economic and social trends.
Joel Connelly - Seattle
Post-Intelligencer
Applebome's thesis
that the nation looks toward the South for leadership is
well-stated and convincing. But it is his ability to weave
tales about the people of the South, flaws and all, that
make his first book unforgettable.
Helyn Trickey - The Piedmont
Review
