Format:
Book
Author:
Horwitz, Tony, 1958-2019 author.
Title:
Spying on the South : an odyssey across the American divide / Tony Horwitz.
Publisher, Date:
New York : Penguin Press, 2019.
©2019
Description:
476 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Summary:
In the 1850s, the young Frederick Law Olmsted was adrift, a restless farmer and dreamer in search of a mission. He found it during an extraordinary journey, as an undercover correspondent in the South for the up-and-coming New York Times. For the Connecticut Yankee, the South was alien, often hostile territory. Yet Olmsted traveled for 14 months, by horseback, steamboat, and stagecoach, seeking dialogue and common ground. His vivid dispatches about the lives and beliefs of Southerners were revelatory for readers of his day, and Olmsted sought to reform his own society by creating democratic spaces for the uplift of all. Horwitz follows Olmsted's tracks and often his mode of transport (including muleback): through Appalachia, down the Mississippi River, into bayou Louisiana, and across Texas to the contested Mexican borderland. Venturing far off beaten paths, Horwitz uncovers bracing vestiges and strange new mutations of the Cotton Kingdom.
Subjects:
Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903 -- Travel -- Southern States.
Horwitz, Tony, 1958- -- Travel -- Southern States.
Slavery -- Southern States -- History.
Plantation life.
Southern States -- Description and travel.
Southern States -- Social life and customs.
Southern States -- History.
Genre:
Travel writing.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 420-462) and index.
LCCN:
2018056912
ISBN:
9781101980286 (hardcover)
1101980281 (hardcover)
Other Number:
1079399605
System Availability:
22
Current Holds:
0
Control Number:
3690596
Call Number:
917.504
Course Reserves:
0
# System items in:
21