Reinterpreting Southern Histories

"Interpreting Southern Histories" is a collection of historiographical essays that updates and expands upon the iconic volumes "Writing Southern History" (1967) and "Interpreting Southern History" (1987), both published by Louisiana State University Press. This third volume includes nineteen essays and an introduction co-written by the most prominent historians working in southern history today. Two scholars, typically at different stages in their careers, collaboratively wrote each essay, providing a broad knowledge of the most recent historiography and expansive visions for historiographical contexts. Each essay connects intellectually with the earlier volumes but avoids unnecessary redundancy. Each also attends to ways in which the cultural turn of the 1980s and 1990s introduced the use of language and cultural symbols, including the influence of gender studies, postcolonial studies, and memory studies. The essays also broadly consider the gradual normalization of the South, relying less on conceptualizing the South as a distinct region and more on contextualizing it within national and global historiographies. In such consideration, however, the contributors also note where the historiography continues to insist on a distinctive "South." This book will be essential reading for every scholar and serious student of southern history"--