This book is so good. Imani Perry is pulling from so many different strands and creating an incredibly compelling narrative about the power and importance of The American South. I struggled at first with the style, but once I figured out what she was doing, I fell in love with this book. It is masterful.

This book is filled with ideas that have the power to shake America. Every chapter/section is filled. I especially loved the way Dr. Imani Perry expanded their research and journey throughout the South, historically and physically, by looking beyond what American considers as the South. This is a book that is always moving. And I loved that. In their newest book, Dr. Perry opens up the South for her readers and reveals extraordinary things that will definitely keep you on your toes. This book of...

Received as an ARC via my employer Barnes & Noble. Started 12-31-21; finished 1-7-22. Each chapter is about a different Southern state. Basically I learned that this country still has a long, long way to go to remove racism from its daily life, and White citizens aren't even aware of much of it. This book attempts to educate us. Read this book with an open mind and you'll be a better person when you're done.

It's hard for me to give this book a star rating, partly because it's difficult to classify, so I'm not sure how to evaluate it. The narrative is personal and specific, while at the same time making broad statements about "we" Americans and conjecturing about the thoughts and feelings of others. While Perry is an astute observer and a deep thinker, this book was not for me. It's quite meandering and nonlinear; it also assumes the reader learned about or remembers the historic events mentioned. I...

While South To America contains histories, it is not a history book. Rather, it is a guided tour of the South (particularly the Black South) by a native daughter of the region. She explores it region by region, starting in Appalachia, relating histories, folkways, foods, industries, everything that makes that region unique, and ties it all back in to race relations and the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans in those regions. The author was born in Alabama, has family roots in several of t...

Thoughts soon.

Thank you to Ecco and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy! Available Jan 2022 Sometimes a book wanders into your life at the perfect moment. This is one of those serendipitous occasions, where I just finished teaching Protest Literature in an English course at Louisiana State University. Told in beautiful prose, Imani Perry's South to America takes us to the heartland of the American South. Intertwining personal, political, and social histories, Perry takes on a journey through the Southern...

Read if you: Want a "traveling/reporting on the South" narrative that rises above recent similar titles. I usually shy away from "traveling/reporting on the South" books; however, when I learned about this one, written by a Black woman, I wanted to read it; it's a perspective not often seen in these books. This is harrowing reading at times, but also quite joyful at times. Librarians/booksellers: Definitely purchase to include a different perspective on books about the modern South. Many thanks

Born in Alabama but raised mostly in the north, Perry writes of the south and its influence on America with personal and historical stories. Her observations are divided into states and/or regions and, even though I didn’t always agree with her conclusions, I always found them considerate and thought provoking. This well written book isn’t a fast paced but it’s one you’ll reflect on after you’ve read it.

South to America by Imani Perry is a journey through the American South. The author takes you on a journey with her, state by state, and explains the history of each state, the people that she encounters, and how the state is today. This was a remarkable read because it taught me of some history that I hadn't heard of before, and it reminded me of how many racial injustices have been committed in the American South and the injustices that are still being committed today. This book is very well-d...

The author never gets over her naked hatred and disdain for present day Caucasians to make this book interesting. Instead she just presents as bitter, thrown in with some historical dates in every observation she makes. The author dwells a lot on herself and her own feelings, as is her right, but from a historical account, you’d like more. Slaves had it really bad, we all know that, and we are appalled by it. But it is unfair to group modern day Caucasians in with slaveholding southerners. Most

2 1/2 starsI was looking forward to this book and there were a few aha moments but I am sad to say that I was underwhelmed. Perhaps the author took on too many areas of racism within our country over a big span of time. At first I liked the idea of traveling to various states and seeing history unfold but it was just too much info without much, if any, connection with the previous or upcoming chapters . It was just all over the place.I appreciate what was attempted but the bottom line is I didn’...

Meandering and bitter.

South to America by Imani Perry offers narrative nonfiction of the Southern U.S. centering Black perspectives. Perry’s fusion of research with personal insights is in the style of Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed or Michael Twitty’s Cooking Gene, which are both well-deserved best-sellers. But Perry’s targets are even more specific. makes clear that while racism is definitely not specific to the South, race has had a particular way of manifesting in American Southern history. she points out t...

The author establishes these expectations: to understand America, you must understand the South, and I can help you do that. The first is ridiculous and the second is a false promise. Stating that this is not a history and is deliberately non-linear, this historian jumbles together thoughts and observations organized only by attribution to various states and regions. It reads not as a scholarly exposition, but an undisciplined set of lecture transcripts that might have been interesting to listen...

Thank you to the publisher Ecco for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.As an American that couldn’t have grown up further from the South and yet has lived here for the last two years, the premise of Imani Perry's South to America had me immediately intrigued. I was fascinated with the idea of an actual Southerner’s take on the interpretation of the complex, often misunderstood idea of the South as a monolith. Perry takes the reader on a journey with her from Appalachia all the...

Imani Perry is a musician with a pen. A lyricist with page as composition, she writes as if she is singing a song and it reads so beautifully. I’m a big fan, in fact I’m moving her into rarified territory. She is the newest member of my event category. Where her books are now events, not just another book, but an event I must attend to. This one is a love letter to the “South” written as part travel diary, part memoir, with history as foundation for present. She manages to tell a story that is b...

I liked the idea of this book. I wanted to learn more about the history of slavery and the influence that it had on the American South as well as the impact on Black American culture as we know it today. As a non-Black person, I had hoped to see the South through a different lens that would help me better understand the vast significance that Black people have had on America.While there was plenty to be learned from the book, I unfortunately had a tough time following what was being said. South

Dr. Imani Perry is the best professor I never had. Everything I have read of hers challenges and inspires me to think about history and liberation in new ways. She tweeted (October 2021), “Ancestors, integrity, study, love <— my guides”. This could not be more evident in South to America. It is a breathtaking exploration and rethinking of the American South and the Global South.This book moves between being geographical (“Is DC the South?”) and thematic (tracing the Black Power movement to the S...

As I told my friends, if you want to read a book about US Southern history that's realistic without being rooted in absolute despair, I highly recommend this one. It's absolutely the perfect balance, and I only have one small critique of it. (My lone concern? Dr. Perry could have easily named the Mardi Gras Indian chief she wrote so lovingly about rather than glossing over his work and identity. Art deserves attribution.)