From the late nineteenth century through World War II, popular culture portrayed the American South as a region ensconced in its antebellum past, draped in moonlight and magnolias, and represented by such southern icons as the mammy, the belle, the chivalrous planter, white-columned mansions, and even bolls of cotton. In Dreaming of Dixie , Karen Cox shows that the chief purveyors of this constructed nostalgia for the Old South were outsiders of the region, especially advertising agencies, musicians, publishers, radio personalities, writers, and filmmakers playing to consumers' anxiety about modernity by marketing the South as a region still dedicated to America's pastoral traditions. Cox examines how southerners themselves embraced the imaginary romance of the region's past, particularly in the tourist trade as southern states and cities sought to capitalize on popular perceptions by showcasing their Old South heritage. Only when television emerged as the most influential medium of popular culture did views of the South begin to change, as news coverage of the civil rights movement brought images of violence, protest, and conflict in the South into people's living rooms. Until then, Cox argues, most Americans remained content with their romantic vision of Dixie. |Cox shows that the chief purveyors of nostalgia for the Old South were outsiders of the region, playing to consumers' anxiety about modernity by marketing the South as a region still dedicated to America's pastoral traditions. Cox examines how southerners themselves embraced the imaginary romance of the region's past.
Karen L. Cox is associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
"Dreaming of Dixie therefore updates, however implicitly, what was once labeled consensus history." -- Southern Jewish History "A fascinating book." -- Against the Grain "A valuable work that helps explain why we as a nation have long viewed the South the way we have." -- Public Historian "A very well done and thoroughly researched historical study that students and scholars of the south or of the processes of representation and place-making will appreciate." -- Journal of Historical Geography "Cox provides an engaging introduction to the field, along with many rich new insights drawn from a vast array of archival materials." -- North Carolina Historical Review "Cox's engaging and wonderfully illustrated book serves as a much-needed challenge to historians to pursue further interdisciplinary study of the American South in popular culture and would also be of interest to scholars interested in consumerism, tourism, and the intersections between regionalism and national identity.""-The Southern Register "Everyone interested in the larger story of Southern tourism will want to read Dreaming of Dixie, as will anyone who wants to understand the role that images of the South and Southerners have played in American culture." -- Florida Historical Quarterly "Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students general readers." -- CHOICE "The book is beautifully illustrated from archival documents and from the author's large personal collection of sheet music covers and advertisements. . . . well researched and documented." -- Cercles "Well illustrated and topically expansive." -- Journal of American History
