The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

“The cultural, social, and intellectual terrain of myths, manners, and historical memory in the American south are addressed in this volume that offers a compelling portrait of the Southern way of life as it has been imagined, lived, and contested.” — Forecast (Bridgewater, NJ)

“The collaborative effort of long-time super-star scholars…and a rainbow of rising new lights, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. . . is living up to its promise of combining old verities with an array of recent scholarly perceptions that make covering everything in only 24 volumes seem to be a short-sighted goal. . . . Wresting a representative snapshot of southern history from the voluminous scrapbooks and long, long library shelves on that subject is a daunting assignment, and Wilson deserves praise for taking the risk of producing a good one.” — Index-Journal (Greenwood, SC)

“The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture provide[s] wonderful insight into the history and culture of the American South. By publishing the encyclopedia in multiple volumes, the editors have helped make this rich resource more readily available to the reading public. Future volumes… will be highly anticipated.” — North Carolina Historical Review

“A relaxed yet meticulous prose style suits these eclectic topics. The authors have taken a laid-back attitude, spreading their project over 28 proposed volumes, and ignoring the temptation to cram too much into each book. That’s an appropriate decision for an enlightening guide to the mythology and beliefs of the sultry South.” — Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

“This set represents a solid improvement on a celebrated work. The individual volumes will be essential for scholars of various Southern studies topics.” — Library Journal

“A valuable guide to a complex and culturally rich region that remains distinct amidst change.” — American Reference Books Annual

“The insight, academic excellence, and depth of understanding of many of the topics make reading this volume a great pleasure.” — Western Folklore

“From Civil War monuments to African influences on southern language and music, and from the plantation to postmodernism, this fascinating volume covers a lot of territory. It provides an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to know just how the South is different, and how many different Souths there are. Nobody interested in the region should be without it.” — Richard Gray FBA, author of Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region and Southern Aberrations: Writers of the American South and the Problems of Regionalism

“This volume maintains the project’s high standards of writing, scholarship, and coverage. It is an essential work for all southern historians, for myth, manners, and memory lay at the very core of the South’s identity as a distinctive region.” — David Goldfield, University of North Carolina-Charlotte