Perry ends by reflecting on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted her travel plans, preventing her from making her usual pilgrimage to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabamaor anywhere in the South. Summary South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand I wasn't familiar with Perry's work before this; if I had been, I probably would have had different expectations. The New Yorker listed South to America as one of the best books of 2022, and former President Barack Obama listed it among his favorite books of 2022. Imani Perry argues that the South is actually central to understanding the arc of American historyits . WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "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. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. Edited by Lexie Diao , Rachel Quester and John Ketchum. An inspiration." Isabel WilkersonAn essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American . 1. The West supposedly existed for dreamers and explorers. However, after the hurricane, the process of gentrification began in earnest, and land once owned and inhabited by Black residents was quickly purchased by white developers. $28.99. INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "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. Shields Green also stands as an example of the erasure of Black peoples roles in historical events. CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | A Simple-to-Understand Summary of "South to America" by Imani Perry. Assuming hell speak about Northern aggression, Perry chooses not to question him, and this, too, is the legacy of the intimacy of slavery we have lived together so long that we believe we can read each others minds. While in some places, Perry has the benefit of a guide, here she doesnt cite the personal conversations that led to her insights, and the resulting observations feel a bit chilly. Acknowledging and making this history visible often creates discomfort for white Americans, but confronting reality is essential to progress. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. In the modern era, it is one of the few regions with a robust Black presence in local politics. We're facing growing inequality. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Of Covid-19, he writes that more than eight hundred thousand people have died to date, and I didnt get to choose a one of them. The authors support of Black Lives Matter is tempered by his interest in the earnest conscientiousness of organizers ensuring everyone is fed and hydrated. I liked the idea of this book. Original music by . As an expat from the South myself, this is an aspect of the book that I can identify with. And she does not flinch when documenting the consequences. Ecco "The South." It's not a neutral term for most Americans. Those splits, she contends, are integral to our national identity. Perry wonders what kind of life her ancestor lived. She was indoctrinated into the cause of Black liberation from a young age, and she retains connections with many of those who helped push the movement forwardincluding some who are still serving out unjust prison sentences. I especially loved the way Dr. Imani Perry expanded their research and journey throughout the South, historically and physically, by looking beyond what American considers as the South. Happy to see this win the National Book Award for 2022 Nonfiction. So, you know that I had to read this, right? His relationship with his partner, Hugh, remains contentious, but its mellowing. Sedaris remains stubbornly irreverent even in the face of pandemic lockdowns and social upheaval. This book is much more an effort to have people dwell in place, space and time, and reconsider their relationships to this place. Twins Twins sweep White Sox behind ninth-inning rally, Ryan Jeffers' 12th-inning single . FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS | The author never gets over her naked hatred and disdain for present day Caucasians to make this book interesting. Beyond the literal divide of the Mason-Dixon, Perry is fixated on the line that divides past and present. A 1939 Fourth of July celebration, St. Helena . Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Take everything you think you know about the South, its people, its history, and its culture, shake it up, and sit back. Who toiled? Rather, it is a guided tour of the South (particularly the Black South) by a native daughter of the region. Started 12-31-21; finished 1-7-22. But what that means is not in fact easily described in political terms., BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | (After thirty years, sleeping is the new having sex.) Even more serious stuff rolls off him. Author and Princeton Professor Imani Perry. The author takes you on a journey with her, state by state, and explains the history of each state, the people that she encounters, and how the state is today. I thought she sounded less rigidly ideological than most; also wanted to read it because it's about the south and because of what it sounded like she had written about the south. Last Updated on January 5, 2023, by eNotes Editorial. GENERAL HISTORY | South to America asks us to consider how the South is both a place of love and anguish, history and future and leads us to a deeper understanding of it means, truly, to be a Southerner. The author dwells a lot on herself and her own feelings, as is her right, but from a historical account, youd like more. The second date is today's During her visit to Maryland, Perry sees people wearing muslin shirts and straw hats while laboring in a field. Start your journey South to America.. His heroism has been nearly lost to history, and to compound the tragedy, after he was hanged his body was given to Winchester Medical College for dissection. It is inevitable, though, that all sites will not receive equal care and attention and clearly her loyalty is to Alabama. During a trip to a Baltimore museum, she reflects on the lives lived by enslaved people in both the rural and urban cities of the South. Publisher: Ecco, 432 pages, $28.99. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation . Summary. Author Imani Perry is a child of the South. Get access to this full Study Guide and much more! Sorry, but thats the truth. She does not offer grand solutions, save for her hope that the written word can yield moral redemption; she is distrustful of memorializing even while recognizing its power; she identifies many distinct origin moments for America; and she has found her own literary muse to guide her soul-searching. Though Green faced execution for his part in John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry, his historical significance is often overlooked; this reflects a common pattern in American history. My grandmother and mother came of age in Jim Crow; I came of age in the violent backlash against its undoing.. Perry always delivers. To understand the nations history, present, and future, one must look to the South. Race is at the heart of the South, and at the heart of the nation, Perry writes, and wherever she goes, she listens for its beat. Who overcame? The books of the last two decades show how we failed. With Eric Krupke. hide caption. But love it or hate it, a new. She begins at Harpers Ferry, W.Va. We meet Shields Green, a Black South Carolinian known as the Emperor of New York who was executed along with John Brown. It's also the case that it is still a place of profound inequality. In her newest book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, she gives the reader a look at the South's . As she reflects on the murder of George Floyd and the continuing efforts of Black organizers and activists, she also reminds readers that dreaming isnt dead, encouraging them to take up the cause of justice and dream of a better future. She has published widely on topics ranging from racial inequality to hip-hop and is active across various media. Who created? GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR, by Women in particular were encouraged to wear restrictive items like girdles and pantyhose in an effort to preserve their image and prevent any messiness from showing. Most Caucasians want nothing but equal treatment in life and law for every human, so work from the premise instead that modern Caucasians arent the devil and arent out to kill you, and we all might get along as a society SO much better! Black communities have strong ties to spirituality, with churches providing sources of community and support. Her thoughts and commentary are made from her perspective as a person of color, and she makes frequent reference to historical and recent racial atrocities that occurred in the places visited. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. The book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. Dropping in and out, putting it aside for a couple of weeks coming up for air then picking it up again. GENERAL NONFICTION | So, you know, for me, that is part of why we have to look to the South to understand the country. Perrys next stops are Virginia and Kentucky, both of which are remarked upon for their hypocritical veneers of high-society respectability. By contrast, undocumented immigrants and those deemed otherwise less desirable face a similarbut also distinctivelevel of discrimination as Black Americans. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Perry considers the South Americas imperfect and contradictory soul. Who built? As remediation, Perry names scores of Southerners: some famous, some unknown. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Read if you: Want a "traveling/reporting on the South" narrative that rises above recent similar titles. UNITED STATES | Read this book with an open mind and you'll be a better person when you're done. 'South To America' makes the case that southern history shaped our Workers, not re-enactors. But of course, this underscores the refrain of this immersion in Southern (American) life and history to what extent are we all re-enactors of the nations brutal history? South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Structured as a journey, with chapters organized by location, this history of the American South examines its subject from both personal and sociopolitical . A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migrations to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way. The author draws on personal experience, history, literature, the arts, and politics to assess the Souths place in the history of the US and its role in contemporary America. South to America Part 2, Chapters 6-8 Summary & Analysis | SuperSummary She points out that the South is a misunderstood region, with the cultural narrative depicting it as a bastion of racism and backwards thinking. South to America, by Imani Perry (Ecco). Many Cuban refugees have been granted a tentative sort of privilege, benefiting from their proximity to white culture and its values. And its not just the music or dance. South to America by Imani Perry is a journey through the American South. All Rights Reserved. Christianity is the dominant religion in both of these regions, and while many of the founding fathers questioned the nature of organized religion, Christianity has nonetheless been treated as a default for settling moral quandaries in US legal history. An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American Southand a revelatory argument for why you must underst We all think we know the South. David Sedaris, by According to Imani Perry, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, the place to look is down South. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. South to America by Imani Perry is a journey through the American South. Finally, Americans view coal miners as Appalachias heroic archetype (18), but Black miners in West Virginia died of silicosis after they were recruited to blast through Gauley Mountain. 30 July 2023 . Imani Perry Yet there is no other way to live., GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | Rather slaveholders were made larger people by virtue of holding others as slaves., No fan of so-called Great Man theories of history, Perry prefers to stitch together a collage of historical meaning, as she puts it, one that can encompass the experiences of those who labored in these fields. When she visits a Maryland tavern where some of the founders had engaged in the slave trade, she is struck by how mundane, untheatrical and matter-of-fact the spot appears; in North Carolina, she recalls the murderous 1898 riot by White citizens in Wilmington against the multiracial local government that had won power, concluding that the broken oasis is a motif in the post-Emancipation South; in Georgia, she pegs Atlanta, which once dubbed itself the city too busy to hate, as the city that "makes it obvious that being American is being a trickster. Perry regrets that history freezes her birthplace of Birmingham, Ala., in the strife and tragedy of 1963, as though the present doesnt count. Other. Intertwining personal, political, and social histories, Perry takes on a journey through the Southern States. However, it remains an impoverished region plagued by high rates of incarceration, which local grassroots movements continuously struggle against. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry 5,154 ratings, 4.00 average rating, 811 reviews Open Preview South to America Quotes Showing 1-12 of 12 "just hope it's still living then. Such a perspective can suffer through time and distance, she admits, yet it allows her to delve into an archive of historical memory in a quest that can be less detailed and more impressionistic but ultimately more profound. In South to America, that effort is rendered through a mix of travelogue, memoir, and literary and historical inquiry, an ambitious project that becomes enlightening and frustrating for its very scope. A sweet-and-sour set of pieces on loss, absurdity, and places they intersect. All opinions are my own. Review: 'South to America,' by Imani Perry - Star Tribune The Black Belt refers to a region in the Southern United Statesmostly centered in Alabama and Missouricharacterized by particularly fertile soil. The second is the date of As Andre 3000 declared, The South got something to say. And its a breathtaking something from fine arts to reality television, internationally traded corporations to roadside rib-shacks whose flavors inform the American palate. The southern travelogue is a genre with a long history. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. The Civil Rights Movement is often distilled down into individual events or charismatic leaderssuch as Martin Luther King Jr. Writing isnt brain surgery, but its rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. POLITICS | Dont let any politician spouting anti-woke nonsense or book-banning suburban moms tell you that their comfort warrants your erasure from the facts of history. hide caption. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to - Bookshop This is one of those serendipitous occasions, where I just finished teaching Protest Literature in an English course at Louisiana State University. An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American Southand a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America. Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number), National Book Award Nonfiction Longlist Revealed, National Book Award Finalists Are Revealed, Winners of the 2022 National Book Awards Revealed, Seattle Public Library Reveals Most Borrowed Books, Viola Davis Memoir Wins Top Prize at Audie Awards. We have to tell the story true, as best we can, and in order to tell the story true, we can't deny parts of who we are; particularly when those parts are the ones that set the stage for what the nation would become. Kentucky, meanwhile, is home to the Kentucky Derby, an event known for its pageantry. Perry ruminates on the hypocrisy. Indeed, Christian beliefs have even been used to justify acts of oppression, including racism, sexism, and homophobia. Paul Kalanithi In her newest book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, she gives the reader a look at the South's complicated history, interwoven with her own personal anecdotes. A Chicago Review of Books Pick. An inspiration." --Isabel Wilkerson However, even as the discussion surrounding race appears to be broadening, the Black population of Washington, DC, is gradually being driven out by gentrification. In their newest book, Dr. Perry opens up the South for her readers and reveals extraordinary things that will definitely keep you on your toes. Even in death, though, it proves hard to escape or laugh off. "South to America - Summary" eNotes Publishing Though Presley acknowledged Black musicians influence, the extent of their impact and their contributions to the style that made him a worldwide star and wealthy celebrity remain largely uncredited. As Perry visits Southern states and the Souths subregions, including its cities, she reflects on her personal and family history as a Black American, which she contextualizes within the discussion of larger historical forces, contemporary American issues, and the USs global position. 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 . That's the place where King Cotton made the United States one of the most wealthy nations in the world. It is the sort of explicit homage that invites comparisons. South to America blends Imani Perry's personal experiences, historical events and reporting on the current cultural moment into a work of creative non-fiction about the American South. However, the God of slaves teaches compassion and freedom for all. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 25, 2022. South to America Quotes by Imani Perry - Goodreads Imani Perry is pulling from so many different strands and creating an incredibly compelling narrative about the power and importance of The American South. Yet she found him endearing, empathizing with his yearning to live inside history, to know its nooks and crannies, to imagine the everyday. A native Alabaman, Perry is the daughter of civil rights activists, a White Jewish father who left the North to teach at a historically Black college and a Black mother whose family had migrated to Birmingham. In 'South to America,' Imani Perry travels below the Mason-Dixon to Just beyond the gates of the racetrack are impoverished neighborhoods inhabited by the underpaid workers who tend the horses on behalf of their millionaire owners. from Harvard Law School and a bachelor's degree from Yale University. Get help and learn more about the design. Trouble signing in? Wounded pride aside, it must be said that this work, though sometimes uneven, is an essential meditation on the South, its relationship to American culture even Americanness itself.

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