A panorama of past and contemporary southern society are captured in Bridging Southern Cultures by some of the South's leading historians, anthropologists, literary critics, musicologists, and folklorists. Crossing the chasms of demographics, academic disciplines, art forms, and culture, this exciting collection reaches aspects of southern heritage that previous approaches have long obscured. Virtually every dimension of southern identity receives attention here. William Andrews,Thadious Davis, Sue Bridwell Beckham, Richard Megraw, and Joyce Marie Jackson offer engaging reflections on art, age, race, and gender. Bertram Wyatt-Brown delivers a startling reading of Faulkner, revealing the tangled history of southern modernism. Daniel C. Littlefield, Henry Shapiro, and Charles Reagan Wilson provide important assessments of Africanisms in southern culture, Appalachian studies, and the blessing and burden of southern culture. John Shelton Reed probes the humorous and awkward aspects of the South's midlife crisis. John Lowe shows how the myth of the biracial southern family complicated plantation-school narratives for both white and black writers. Showcasing the thought of preeminent southern intellectuals, Bridging Southern Cultures is a timely assessment of the state of contemporary southern studies.

A panorama of past and contemporary southern society are captured in Bridging Southern Cultures by some of the South's leading historians, anthropologists, literary critics, musicologists, and folklorists. Crossing the chasms of demographics, academic disciplines, art forms, and culture, this exciting collection reaches aspects of southern heritage that previous approaches have long obscured. Virtually every dimension of southern identity receives attention here. William Andrews,Thadious Davis, Sue Bridwell Beckham, Richard Megraw, and Joyce Marie Jackson offer engaging reflections on art, age, race, and gender. Bertram Wyatt-Brown delivers a startling reading of Faulkner, revealing the tangled history of southern modernism. Daniel C. Littlefield, Henry Shapiro, and Charles Reagan Wilson provide important assessments of Africanisms in southern culture, Appalachian studies, and the blessing and burden of southern culture. John Shelton Reed probes the humorous and awkward aspects of the South's midlife crisis. John Lowe shows how the myth of the biracial southern family complicated plantation-school narratives for both white and black writers. Showcasing the thought of preeminent southern intellectuals, Bridging Southern Cultures is a timely assessment of the state of contemporary southern studies.

Borderlands: they stretch across national boundaries, and they create a unique space that extends beyond the international boundary. They extend north and south of what we think of as the actual “border,” encompassing even the urban areas of San Antonio, Texas, and Monterrey, Nueva León, Mexico, affirming shared identities and a sense of belonging far away from the geographical boundary. In Bridging Cultures: Reflections on the Heritage Identity of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, editors Harriett Romo and William Dupont focus specifically on the lower reaches of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo as it exits the mountains and meanders across a coastal plain. Bringing together perspectives of architects, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, educators, political scientists, geographers, and creative writers who span and encompass the border, its four sections explore the historical and cultural background of the region; the built environment of the transnational border region and how border towns came to look as they do; shared systems of ideas, beliefs, values, knowledge, norms of behavior, and customs—the way of life we think of as Borderlands culture; and how border security, trade and militarization, and media depictions impact the inhabitants of the Borderlands. Romo and Dupont present the complexity of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands culture and historical heritage, exploring the tangible and intangible aspects of border culture, the meaning and legacy of the Borderlands, its influence on relationships and connections, and how to manage change in a region evolving dramatically over the past five centuries and into the future.

Horace King (1807-1885) built covered bridges over every large river in Georgia, Alabama, and eastern Mississippi. That King, who began life as a slave in Cheraw, South Carolina, received no formal training makes his story all the more remarkable. This is the first major biography of the gifted architect and engineer who used his skills to transcend the limits of slavery and segregation and become a successful entrepreneur and builder. John S. Lupold and Thomas L. French Jr. add considerably to our knowledge of a man whose accomplishments demand wider recognition. As a slave and then as a freedman, King built bridges, courthouses, warehouses, factories, and houses in the three-state area. The authors separate legend from facts as they carefully document King’s life in the Chattahoochee Valley on the Georgia-Alabama border. We learn about King’s freedom from slavery in 1846, his reluctant support of the Confederacy, and his two terms in Alabama’s Reconstruction legislature. In addition, the biography reveals King’s relationship with his fellow (white) contractors and investors, especially John Godwin, his master and business partner, and Robert Jemison Jr., the Alabama entrepreneur and legislator who helped secure King’s freedom. The story does not end with Horace, however, because he passed his skills on to his three sons, who also became prominent builders and businessmen. In King’s world few other blacks had his opportunities to excel. King seized on his chances and became the most celebrated bridge builder in the Deep South. The reader comes away from King’s story with respect for the man; insight into the problems of financing, building, and maintaining covered bridges; and a new sense of how essential bridges were to the southern market economy.

New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 1: Religion

The highly practical self-help guide to optimize the performance of individuals working in an intercultural environment. Readers will learn how to mitigate unconscious bias to create inclusive organizations and how to use key cultural dimensions to communicate and cooperate in intercultural teams. Addressing the unique challenges of influencing across cultures and managing international projects, this is an indispensable toolkit for a key competence in business. Bridge The Culture Gaps provides readers with a framework for developing key skills essential for effective global collaboration in the VUCA world. These include reflecting on experience, understanding the nature and impact of culture and the importance of diversity for business success. Readers learn how to mitigate unconscious bias to create inclusive organizations, and to use key cultural dimensions to communicate and cooperate in intercultural teams. It addresses the challenges of leading diverse teams, influencing across cultures and managing international transformation projects, as well as making international assignments successful.

Southern Cultures Volume 20: Number 1 – Summer 2014 Table of Contents Front Porch 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 A Life Lost (and Found) in the Annals of Bryce Mental Hospital by Lindsay Byron "Her name was never to be spoken. Even upon the lips and within the hearts of her own children, remembrance was forbidden. Silence nearly erased her from history." Ghosts, Wreckers, and Rotten Ties The 1891 Train Wreck at Bostian's Bridge 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." Photo Essay 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 two 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 banks 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." South Polls Partisan Change in Southern State Legislatures, 1953–2013 by Christopher A. Cooper and 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." Beyond Grits and Gravy 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 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." Not Forgotten 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?'" Mason–Dixon Lines Apple Slices poetry by Todd Boss ". . . flavored of tin from the lip of the cup of a dented thermos passed between us—" Books Elaine Neil Orr A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa reviewed by Fred Hobson Jennifer Rae Greeson Our South: Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature reviewed by Michael McCollum Angela C. Halfacre A Delicate Balance: Constructing a Conservation Culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry reviewed by Brian Grabbatin About the Contributors