Reviews

The Burden of Southern History by C. Vann Woodward

suttonaw's review

5.0

I read this book during a period when I was living in Texas and trying to articulate why I hated it so intensely. Woodward is pretty fascinating - I really felt like he gave me some insight into the history of the Lost Cause. He carries the implications of the past forward in a really brilliant way - it was quite disturbing to read his analysis of how the Southern mentality differs from the mentality in the rest of America, and realize that he had basically predicted the hubris of George Bush and the likelihood of a war (like Iraq) when he wrote this book 40-some-odd years ago.

jaclyn_youngblood's review

4.0

I particularly liked this. I love that it was dated. I love that my marginalia included musings on Iraq and Syria. His writing is beautiful and his thesis fascinating. Specifically, this was an intellectually entertaining read because of the publication date; Morrison Dictum, bring it on. I enjoyed Search for Southern Identity, John Brown, The Irony of Southern History above all. Highly recommend if you can suspend your present-day sensibilities long enough to appreciate Woodward's writing.