An NPR Best Book of 2022

The SOUTHERNIZATION of AMERICA

Bringing a multi-racial perspective from years of political reporting, award-winning authors Frye Gaillard and Pulitzer Prize winner Cynthia Tucker have carried forward the thesis of John Egerton’s seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie in their new collaboration, The Southernization of America, to consider the role of the South in shaping America’s current cultural and political landscape. They examine the morphing of the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan into today’s Republican Party, the racial backlash against President Obama, family separation on our southern border, the rise of the religious right, white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the death of George Floyd, and the attack on our nation’s capitol. With democracy under siege, they find hope in the South’s legacy rooted in the civil rights years that could ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption during this critical moment in America’s turbulent history.

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Upcoming Events

March 4 – Monroeville Literary Festival, Monroeville, AL
March 4 – Arts Award Banquet, Prattville, AL
April 14 – Alabama Historical Association, Prattville, AL
April 18 – Rock Hill Public Schools, Rock Hill, SC
April 23 – Book talk, Dauphin Way United Methodist Church, Mobile, AL
April 25 – A Word on Words book release, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
May 11 – Huntsville Literary Association, Huntsville, AL
July 29 – Alabama Communications Conference, Birmingham, AL
August 22 – Foley Public Library, Foley, AL
August 25 – Gardendale Public Library, Gardendale, AL
September 7-21 – Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Writer in Residency, Auburn University

Popular Books

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Coming In Paperback, 2023
NPR Great Read of 2018 & winner of F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum Literary Prize

“A child of the Sixties and one of the leading civil-rights reporters of his generation, Gaillard has given us a riveting tour along the fine line between history and journalism.”

– Howell Raines, Pulitzer Prize winner, former executive editor, The New York Times

Now Available from Vanderbilt University Press

A powerful collection of conversations between a journalistic icon and some of the finest writers of our time … Nikki Giovanni, Jon Meacham, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pat Conroy, and others.

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Ezra Wants to Know:
The True Story of the Rosenwald Schools
with Marti Rosner, Intellect Publishing 2022

“Through the special relationship of (Julius) Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington, the story explores the creation of over 5000 ‘schools for Negroes’ across the south during the 1920’s and 1930’s.  This is a must read for all ages eager to learn what most of our history books have left behind.”

– AJ Cooper, Civil Rights Attorney, Founder of the National Black Law
Students Association and former Mayor of Prichard, Alabama