by Imani Perry
First published 2022
Imani Perry returns to the American South as a Black woman and Alabama native, determined to understand how this region shapes the entire nation. She travels through landscapes and communities that most Americans think they know through symbols like plantations, the Civil War, and Jim Crow. Perry discovers that Southern realities run deeper and stranger than these surface markers suggest. She meets Southerners across racial and class lines, documenting their stories with careful attention to both suffering and celebration. Her journey takes her through immigrant neighborhoods, artist studios, and historical sites while she traces connections between past and present. Perry weaves together accounts of enslaved people, contemporary creators, opportunistic exploiters, overlooked champions, and her own family history. She argues that Americans cannot understand their country without grappling seriously with Southern culture and history. The book builds toward her central claim that any effort to create a more compassionate United States must focus significant attention on the states below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Genres: history, american, african-american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, cultural-studies, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, social-commentary
Setting: Alabama, American South, Mason-Dixon Line
Period: 21st Century
410 pages · Hardcover · Ecco