(See Cover)
Tell about the South. What's it like
there. What do they do there. Why do
they live there. Why do they live at all?
You can't understand it. You would
have to be born there.
—Absalom, Absalom!
The myths, mysteries, and hard realities of the South are the preoccupation of Presidents, the puzzlement of foreigners, the daily grist of newsmen, and the astonishment of the entire nation. Is the South a war camp of church bombings and station-wagon burnings, or is it a region earnestly attempting peaceful compliance with a hated civil rights law?...