Dixie Land as we know it is being slowly and unceremoniously demolished. Piece by piece, urbanization, immigration, and religious erosion collectively dismantle the traditional properties that made the South such a special region . . . or so the popular rhetoric would have you believe.
Of course, the “Dixie Land as we know it” never truly existed and results from revisionary spins on the South’s history, these filtered through magnolia-colored lenses. In The New Mind of the South, recently released in paperback, journalist Tracy Thompson attempts to sift through the mythologies and romantic notions surrounding the South’s identity. She explores how the South functions, not in opposition to a dominant culture, but as a piece of an American puzzle.
Thompson cites Carl Deglar’s notion of the “two-ness of Southerners”—the pride one feels in the South as a home and the shame associated with the region’s quarrelsome history—as a driving motivation for her exploration. Born in Atlanta, but having spent her most recent years in Washington, D.C., Thompson eagerly excavates what she can about her own identity and that of her friends and family.
Early in the work, Thompson notes that the South’s history is so ill-defined precisely because “we all agreed not to talk about it.” If Thompson has one mission in her study, she hopes to promote a more open discourse—to talk about it. It makes sense, then, that Thompson makes her work very conversational. She often incorporates anecdotes from her own experiences to flesh out larger concepts.
This is not to say that Thompson relies solely on narratives to drive her ideas. She cites plenty of statistical data, but eschewing pedantic academic theories and cumbersome data creates an atmosphere of dialogue, rather than lecture.
As with most discussions of Southern identity and history, the conversation quickly lands on controversial and incendiary topics—racism, xenophobia, and an inherent guilt that historian C. Vann Woodward dubbed “the burden of Southern history.” Rather than shying from these subjects, Thompson revels in her opportunity to deconstruct and examine how and why the South promulgated such absurd notions. She also examines how they are evolving in an increasingly integrated and connected society.
Thompson devotes each chapter to the exploration of a subject currently shaping the South. Chapters on racial politics and revisions of Civil War history will not surprise anyone with the barest knowledge of the South, but chapters on Hispanic immigration and religious fundamentalism best achieve their missions. Thompson offers thoughtful and evenhanded explorations of these potentially thorny subjects. Case studies of Asheboro, North Carolina, and World Changers Church International draw from statistics and personal portraits. She intertwines her own anecdotes with copious interviews from preachers, reformers, Daughters of the Confederacy, historians (self-appointed and university ordained), and all shades of people in between, making her ideas personal and accessible.