In-store reading and signing Thursday, May 19th at 6:00 PM with Cynthia Tucker, co-author of “The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance."
Frye Gaillard, the other co-author of the book, was originally joining us as well but unfortunately will not be able to make it; however you can still expect a wonderful reading and conversation of the book and have it signed by Cynthia Tucker.
Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize as editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and has been a frequent commentator on television and radio. Frye Gaillard is an award-winning journalist and author who has written extensively on Southern race relations, politics, and culture. "The Southernization of America" is a compelling series of essays considering the role of the South in shaping America's current political and cultural landscape.
This event is free and open to all; save your seat and your copy of the book at the link below!
In 1974 John Egerton published his seminal work, The Americanization of Dixie. Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker and award-winning author Frye Gaillard carry Egerton’s thesis forward in The Southernization of America, a compelling series of linked essays considering the role of the South in shaping America’s current political and cultural landscape. They dive deeper, examining the morphing of the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan into the Republican Party of today, the racial backlash against President Obama, family separation on our southern border, the rise of the Christian right, the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the death of George Floyd, and the attack on our nation’s capitol. They find hope in the South too, a legacy rooted in the civil rights years that might ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption. Tucker and Gaillard bring a multiracial perspective and years of political reporting to bear on a critical moment in American history, a time of racial reckoning and democracy under siege.
Frye Gaillard is an award-winning journalist and the author of more than thirty books on Southern history and culture. His A Hard Rain was named one of NPR's Best Books of 2018. He is the winner of the Clarence Cason, Lillian Smith, and Eugene Current-Garcia book awards.
Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize as editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has also been a Washington political columnist and a frequent commentator on television and radio. Tucker's journalism has been celebrated by Harvard University, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, and the National Association of Black Journalists, which inducted her into its hall of fame. She was a visiting professor at UGA's Grady College of Journalism and is the journalist-in-residence at the University of South Alabama.