The Mind of the South

the long version

This probing collection of essays assesses the wide influence of W.J. Cash and the profound effect of his classic dissection of southern history. Perhaps more than any other historian, W.J. Cash revolutionized the interpretation of southern identity. In 1941, when he published The Mind of the South, he exploded the correlated myths of the Cavalier South and the New South and gave historiography a new gauge for examining Dixie. In the half century since its publication, Cash's book has lain in the path of every historian of the South. Not all, however, have expressed the same opinion about him and his influence, though few can deny how in the past fifty years his indelible and authoritative work has shaped the writing of southern history. In The Mind of the South: Fifty Years Later, a collection of papers presented at the annual Porter L. Fortune Symposium on Southern History held at the University of Mississippi, eleven scholars examine this classic study and assess its enduring importance. Here in these essays Cash is praised, evaluated, criticized, defended, and classified, while being acknowledged as the lion in the crossroads of southern historiography.