1001 Things Everyone Should Know/South

Rating:
Summary: Best of the best
Review: A wonderful, affectionate, comprehensive, subtle, well-written...well, you fill in the rest of the adjectives...book about America's most fascinating region. Should be required reading at every school in the land.

Rating:
Summary: And some books are like a box of chocolate, too ...
Review: All I would add to what hasn't been said here in these very positive reviews is that the writers of "1001 Things" are believable not only for their impeccable scholarship, but for their sense of humor as well. By not taking the South or themselves too seriously, the writers lead the curious reader into a varied universe of discovery. (A lot of stuff about the South is, of course, excrutiatingly serious, but the wit helps dull the bite.) This is THE guidebook to the American South - and an aptly named one as well. (I like it so much I have TWO copies!)

Rating:
Summary: Essential & Entertaining Reference for All Americans
Review: Born in Texas of Texan parents, but raised outside the South (except for six years or so in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, which aren't nearly as Southern as they used to be), I've always felt self-consciously removed from what I'd like to consider my heritage. Thanks to John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed's great book, I've not only discovered I'm more Southern than I realized, but know a lot more about that section of the country than I did before.

'1001 Things Everyone Should Know about the South' is a book anyone can open at random and start reading anywhere. But if you read it straight through, systematically, I'm willing to guarantee almost anyone they'll discover things about the South they never knew before.

This book is not a fancied-up version of 'You Know You're a Redneck When ...'.

The Reeds are serious researchers and writers, and they look at the South through the lenses of history, geography, ethnology, linguistics, religion, art, music, literature, architecture, cooking, politics, economics, and more. There are the obligatory sections on the Confederacy and the War, of course, but the Reeds understand, as other historians and writers have also noted, that the CSA was a period of barely five years out of more than 400 years of Southern history. (One of the things everyone should know about the South is that there were European settlers in Virginia, Texas, and Florida before anyone save Native Americans had set foot on Plymouth Rock.) This is one of the things that made '1001 Things ...' a far more satisfying book for me than was Michael Andrew Grissom's 'Southern by the Grace of God,' which had a tendency to view everything through the prism of the War.

There is an enormous amount of interesting material in this book, ranging from the difference between 'Cajun' and 'Creole,' to the differences in habits between Southerners and folks in other parts of the nation (northerners subscribe to more dog magazines but Southerners own more dogs), to regional differences in linguistics and cuisine (finally I've found someplace that explains regional varieties of barbecue, though as a loyal son of Texas I have to agree that brisket, not pork, is the proper barbecuing meat [#647]).

Among the other interesting things I learned: 80 percent of Southern parents teach their children to say 'sir' and 'ma'am' to adults (mine sure did), whereas only 46 percent of non-Southern parents do [#148]; 80 percent of Southerners also admit to using 'you-all' or 'y'all' occasionally as the second person plural, whereas most non-Southerners almost never do [#147]; one of the characteristics of Southern writers is that many of them only discovered their 'Southernness' when they lived outside the South [#472 -- hey! Like me!], and that Southern artists, or at least artists from the South, include Jasper Johns, Charles Willson Peale and Rembrandt Peale, John James Audubon, and Robert Rauschenberg, among many others.

My favorite living writer, Florence King (author of 'Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady,' among much else), said of this book, 'Every page is a treat!' As usual, I agree with her absolutely.

Rating:
Summary: About time!
Review: It's about time someone compiled this valuable data concerning one of the country's most interesting areas. This book is great for Yankees AND Southerners alike. The most wonderful thing about this book is that you'll find out what some of those expressions, terms, and shibboleths mean--the ones you always heard but were afraid to ask about for fear of being labeled ignorant of your own culture! A must-have for anyone interested in the culture of America and especially the South. Highly recommend this book along with McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD--a fascinating read about Southern culture and what it means to be from the South.

Rating:
Summary: Slowing Down
Review: Slowing down along all those back roads of the world that is the South is the only way to appreciate the unique outlook of the southern spirit where life and events are often taken with a grain of salt due to the fact that the important things were the same yesterday, and the day before, and all the days before that. Emotional health is probably the most valued commodity, and perhaps the most scrutinized quality of southern communities. In many cases, it is the most important development to watch and gauge since much of the south is far from the pyramids of power that are often created in locations like New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago or Los Angeles. It is eons away from foreign influences of Paris, London, Asia or Japan. The living is easy and the sun is hot requiring local dynamics to be the most valuable in terms of acceptance. It gives a new meaning to the idea of majority and minority but not necessarily confined to color. To know the south, time spent there is a must. Southerners appreciate the meaning of home grown and honor their own perspective on life, which sometimes isn't the same as it is in other parts of the country. Rebel yells have a different meaning than up north and don't always reflect the civil war years. It helps to understand Hank Williams, Jr. and some of the other country singers who have it in their blood. 1,0001 facts about the south can only help people appreciate this unique part of the country where life is meant to be savored, not swift. It is greatly aided by a partner of commensurable sentiments.

Rating:
Summary: Near encyclopedic coverage of Southern essentials and trivia
Review: This book is a delight. It's not a treatise for reading straight through but more a dipper's delight.

This book covers nearly everything anybody could reasonably want to know about The South - and a great deal more. The authors' treatment is rather eclectic - some major Southern indicia get fairly cursory treatment whilst some trivia get dwelt upon lovingly. I loved the treatment of Moon Pie - a delicacy unknown to European shores.

The Reeds have done an excellent job of combining scholarship with lightness of touch. The format is one of brief entries on topics (approx 100-500 words) loosely but alphabetically arranged by theme. It nicely complements John Shelton Reed's "My tears spoiled my aim" without covering the same ground.

Leave a copy in your bathroom - your guests will thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: This boook includes, well, a thousand interesting facts about the South. Being Southern myself, I never knew what was in a mint julep (along with 90% of the rest of the South). This is a book that you can pick up, flip to any page and just read. Everything is interesting, and you might learn something, too. Recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Everything you wanted to know
Review: This covers everything you should know in an amazing economy of space. It is like an encyclopedia in one volume. Everything that is southern is in this book. Things you have thought and wondered about is in this book, with unique and rare photos. It is hard to put this book down, one looks up one fact and stumbles on other facts that lead to something else. It is like the world wide web. A totally engrossing book, a reference book that is a must for all southern libraries.