by Tony Horwitz
First published 2019
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Tony Horwitz retraces the steps of 19th-century journalist Frederick Law Olmsted, whose incognito travels through the antebellum South presaged the Civil War. Horwitz encounters the modern-day South, its memories and myths, as he navigates the region's changing fortunes and uneasy reckoning with its racial history. From the Arkansas Ozarks to the Florida Everglades, Horwitz's vivid reporting and deeply empathetic interviews reveal a complex, contradictory land still grappling with its troubled past.
Genres: biography, history, american, 21st-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, investigative-journalism
Setting: Arkansas Ozarks, Florida Everglades, South
Period: 19th-Century, Antebellum, Civil War
496 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: racism