Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2001

Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2001

Ignoring his repeated appeals to do nothing of the sort, we pay tribute in this issue to the career of John Shelton Reed. Reed innocently looks at the most important southerners on the twentieth-century, the shape the South might take by 2036, and even the wild sounds of 1950s rock. Some of our good friends line up to comment, scold, and skewer the author, sociologist, and newly retired professor.

The Dear John Letters

by Southern Cultures Editors

"Daddy said he wouldn't go to church, so she shot him."

Front Porch: Spring 2001

by Harry L. Watson

"'It ain't bragging if you can prove it.'"

1001 More Things Everyone Should Know about the South

by Doris Betts

"Nobody enjoys getting his tongue extended far into his cheek more than Reed, and few have such a reach."

An Episcopalian Imagination

by Michael O'Brien

"It is the illusion of his style that Reed is a sort of good old boy, sitting on his porch, swigging his whiskey, going out the back to shoot hapless mammals."

“Knock Us Out, John!”

by James C. Cobb

"The object of John's climb is what is presumed to be a coon nestled among the giant sweet gum's topmost branches."

The Well Wrought “Durn”: A Postmodern Writer in the Southern World

by Anne Goodwyn Jones

"'Southerners can't grasp anything that isn't couched in a Br'er Rabbit tale. They got cornmeal mush for brains.'"

Rethinking Southern History

by David L. Carlton

"Reed burst on the southern scene in 1972 as a contrarian, and, as we know, he has remained very much a contrarian to this day."

The Promise of a Sociology of the South

by Larry J. Griffin

"Even as he turned to a form of largely conservative cultural commentary on all sorts of things, Reed retained a keen sociological consciousness."

Surveying the South: A Conversation with John Shelton Reed

by Eugene D. Genovese, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, John Shelton Reed

"I don't have much patience with folks who say the Civil War was not about slavery."