Vol. 20, No. 2: Summer 2014

Vol. 20, No. 2: Summer 2014

Ghost trains, lost women, and strong drink—plus, the politics of music, mourning, and the modern South. The Summer 2014 issue looks at public and private stories of love and betrayal, of honoring the dead, of coal camp memories and family histories finally written.

Front Porch: Summer 2014

by Jocelyn R. Neal

"One of the challenges—and, simultaneously, deep pleasures—of studying the South is that the disciplinary walls of the academy neither contain nor constrain the work."

Rewriting Elizabeth

by Lindsay Byron

This article first appeared in the Summer 2014 Issue.

Ghosts, Wreckers, and Rotten Ties

by Scott Huffard

"When train number nine on the Western North Carolina Railroad tumbled off Bostian's Bridge in 1891, it ignited a media frenzy, as well as a firestorm of outrage, a detailed investigation, a compelling mystery, and a series of unanswered questions."

Teenage Pastime

by Natalie Minik

"When the unlimited energy of adolescence comes to bear on the limited experience of childhood, the results often swing toward one of the poles - an enthusiastic confirmation of the culture a child grew into or a bold rejection of the culture they grew out of."

“The Best Notes Made the Most Votes”: W. C. Handy, E. H. Crump, and Black Music as Politics

by Mark A. Johnson

"'Feet commenced to pat. A moment later there was dancing on the sidewalks below. Hands went into the air, bodies swayed like the reeds on the bands of the Congo.'"

Taking Strong Drink

by Bill Koon

"Some devout Baptists complained that there was too much booze in a mini bottle for one drink; the rest of us complained that there wasn't enough."

Partisan Change in Southern State Legislatures, 1953–2013

by Christopher A. Cooper, H. Gibbs Knotts

"At mid-century, the South had no Republican senators and only two Republicans in the 105-person southern House delegation. By 2000 [both] delegations were majority Republican."

Maggie and Buck: Coal Camps, Cabbage Rolls, and Community in Appalachia

by Donna Tolley Corriher

"Maggie's neighbor-women saw a young woman just like themselves, with no children to feed, trying to build a life, and so they helped her, unquestioning in recognition that she would help them in return. This was so."

Winning Friends and Influencing Dead People

by JL Strickland

"Joe cackled fiendishly, addressing Vernon through the closed lid. 'Who's got the last laugh now, big boy?'"

Apple Slices

by Todd Boss

"...flavored of tin from the lip of the cup of a dented thermos passed between us—"

A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa by Elaine Neil Orr (review)

by Fred Hobson

Berkley Books, 2013

Our South: Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature by Jennifer Rae Greeson (Review)

by Michael McCollum

Harvard University Press, 2010

A Delicate Balance: Constructing a Conservation Culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry by Angela C. Halfacre (Review)

by Brian Grabbatin

University of South Carolina Press, 2012