The Mind of the South

By W.J. Cash

Book Overview

Ever since its publication in 1941, The Mind of the South has been recognized as a path-breaking work of scholarship and as a literary achievement of enormous eloquence and insight in its own right. From its investigation of the Southern class system to its pioneering assessments of the region's legacies of racism, religiosity, and romanticism, W. J. Cash's book defined the way in which millions of readers- on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line-would see the South for decades to come. This fiftieth-anniversary edition of The Mind of the South includes an incisive analysis of Cash himself and of his crucial place in the history of modern Southern letters.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679736476
• ISBN13: 9780679736479
• Release Date: August 1970
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An Essential Southern Book

As a native Southerner, I was bowled over by the profound truths contained in this book. It strips away the legend of the South and shows the reality behind it. One of Cash's main tenets is that the South never changes, it just adapts to new times. This makes the book somewhat repetitive, as each era of history is essentially just a variation of the past. Also, this book was written before the Civil Rights Movement. I would have loved to know how Cash would have changed his opinion of the South after desegregation. Even though it is somewhat dated, this is still a book that every American should read. The South matters, and this book provides a key to understanding it.

Basically, EXCELLENT WORK!!!!

Cash ultimately committed suicide because he was torn between (and fell between the stools of) a) critiquing his beloved South, and b) defending his beloved South. On balance, I think he makes excellent. insightful, and SUPERB points! At a minimum, he establishes that only Southern men are real men. (And all the Yankees are tutti-frutti's!)

The Bedrock For Southern Intellectual History

For Boomer aged Southerners, there was no formal Southern history. At school you got Yankee cant; at home you got Lost Cause and Jim Crow. That doesn't fit the Chamber of Commerce image of cities too busy to hate, but that was the reality for all but the most miniscule minority of white Southerners. Through public school and college in The South, I never had a word from Southern thinkers with the minor exception of Faulkner - not much of a thinker, but a good describer.Cash was my introduction to Southern intellectual history, and by the time I found him I was far from the South in both space and time. I can feel Cash in my very bones; a dose of Tom Watson populism, a dose of Mencken's cynicism, and a whole bunch of the self-loathing that a defeated and impoverished people wore like tattered old clothes every day. Some neo-Southerners call Cash a South-hater, but they miss the point; Cash wanted desperately to love The South, but could find little to love except myth. You get much the same with Woodward, though in finer clothes. "Strange Career" is nothing but myth, yet it propelled Woodward to the heights of the Academy. The key to both these books is that they are Yankee approved mythology. The publishing houses are not on Peachtree Street, they are on 5th Avenue. For anyone wishing to begin exploration of Southern thought, Cash, the Nashville Agrarians, and Strange Career are the places to start. If you go no further, you won't know anything about The South, but to go further, you must start here.