C. Vann Woodward's The Burden of Southern History remains one of the essential history texts of our time. In it Woodward brilliantly addresses the interrelated themes of southern identity, southern distinctiveness, and the strains of irony that characterize much of the South's historical experience. First published in 1960, the book quickly became a touchstone for generations of students. This updated third edition contains a chapter, "Look Away, Look Away," in which Woodward finds a plethora of additional ironies in the South's experience. It also includes previously uncollected appreciations of Robert Penn Warren, to whom the book was originally dedicated, and William Faulkner. This edition also features a new foreword by historian William E. Leuchtenburg in which he recounts the events that led up to Woodward's writing The Burden of Southern History, and reflects on the book's--and Woodward's--place in the study of southern history. The Burden of Southern History is quintessential Woodward--wise, witty, ruminative, daring, and as alive in the twenty-first century as when it was written.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
The Burden of C. Vann Woodward:
C. Vann Woodward was a fine historian with liberal sentiments when it came to race while still loving his native South. "The Burden of Southern History" is a collection of his essays that has now gone through numerous editions. Woodward is sometimes excellent ("The Irony of Southern History" is perhaps the finest essay in this collection) but some of his pieces are flat. Woodward is good on the works of Robert Penn Warren and on how three Northern writers viewed the South in the Gilded Age. His piece on the... more info
Essays from a Southern Intellectual:
This is a collection of essays on then contemporary southern culture and history. The essays generally deal with the transformation then taking place- the end of segregation, the civil rights movement, and surging population and industrial development. The essays have a sentimental quality I don't find in more modern writings. They are short in the quality of thesis ('Southern Identity lies in a common memory', 'The country made ambiguous moves towards racial equality during the civil War and... more info
