"An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South--and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America."

Includes index.

Introduction --I. Origin stories. -- An errand into wilderness: Appalachia ; -- Mother country: Virginia ; -- Animated roulette: Louisville ; -- Mary's land: Annapolis and the caves ; -- Ironic capital: Washington, DC -- II. The solidified South. -- The clearing: upper Alabama ; -- Tobacco Road in the Bible Belt: North Carolina ; -- King of the South: Atlanta ; -- More than a memorial: Birmingham ; -- Pearls before swine: Princeton to Nashville ; -- When Beale Street talks: Memphis ; -- Soul of the South: the Black Belt -- III. Water people. -- Home of the flying Africans: the Low Country ; -- Pistoles and flamboyn: Florida ; -- Immobile women: Mobile ; -- Magnolia graves and Easter lilies: New Orleans ; -- Paraíso: the Bahamas and Havana -- Conclusion.