The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South (and Why it Will Rise Again)

Anyone who wants to get elected, that's who! But why? And what makes this region so hard for outsiders to understand? Why, when you have to tip-toe around every other hyphenated American can you disparage these people with impunity? It really comes down to ignorance and fear. Fear can not be banished by clinging to ignorance and that is why this book is so important. It is not written in the obtuse, stilted language of the academe. Like Paine's "Common Sense" it meets people where they are and deals not in convaluted theories but simple straight-forward facts. FACTS.Who distilled the underlying ideas of the Declaration, The Constitution AND the Bill of Rights? Who, with the stroke of a pen and a check more than doubled the size of the country and put a foothold on the Pacific and without a drop of American blood? Who, rather than see that Constitution gutted and sold out to the interests of railroads and other big business risked all and lost all in a failed second revolution? Southernors all. It does not stop there but the reviews here are quite adequate and require no further repeating. Why will it rise again? It already has! Every 10 years representation will be taken from liberal states where socialism light continues to bleed people dry and they move South. If they are not converted, their children are. The South has realized low taxes and cheap energy builds wealth, not taxes and entitlements. Richard Weaver once wrote a book entitled "Ideas Have Consequences" The title says it all. The South is prevailing because they live and work in reality. Northern Jacobins are destroying themselves with political correctness, immorality, and socialism. Kerry said in his failed presidential bid "Who needs the South?" A better question is why does the South even want to be a part of the nanny-state? The north is no longer relevant.

To start, let me say that I'm not a full-blooded Southern boy though I was born and raised in Georgia. My mother was from Michigan and my father from New York. I've never developed an interest in hunting, NASCAR, or country music. Nevertheless, I'm proud of the South, our way of life, and what I perceive to be a slower and friendlier pace than other parts of the USA.My mom loved to say that it takes two to make a fight. Once this book gets into actual history review, it does a nice job of providing another perspective about why and how the Civil War transpired. As other reviewers have noted, the book isn't intended to provide an exhaustive or balanced viewpoint about the Southern Confederacy but it raises enough concern to inspire serious history buffs to dig deeper elsewhere.For me, the first four chapters were fluff and I found it hard to stay engaged through discussions of race cars, sweet tea, and Southern hospitality. The fun reading started in Chapter 5 with the history of the States and things got deeper in Chapter 9 with a review of slavery (in both the North and South) and the Civil War. It was here that I was confronted with a historical perspective quite different from what I'd been taught in school.Was the Civil War really about slavery or did the North have a hidden agenda that it continues to carry out even today? Were Union troops truly interested in a united, free country? Was the North hypocritical when it came to states rights? And was Abraham Lincoln the hero of emancipation that we celebrate today?These questions and more are addressed in plain English and supported by enough shocking quotes from Sherman, Grant, and Lincoln themselves to send anyone serious about American history back to the bookshelf for more research.If you are particularly interested in light reading about the Civil War period from a Southern perspective, this book is worth the time and money if you only read Chapters 9 - 13.

Please let me preface my comments on Clint Johnson’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South by stating that I was born in Minnesota, lived the last thirty years in Vermont, and moved to Tennessee a few months ago…..a “Yankee” all my life. In preparation for moving South I read a number of books about southern culture and this book, along with Thomas Fleming’s A Disease in the Public Mind, Why We Fought the Civil War, are must reads for anyone who wants to learn the fascinating history of the Southern United States that has been withheld from Yankee education. There are many examples of slave culture that are so counter to the Uncle Tom’s Cabin narrative. So much of what we were taught to believe has been so slanted to project a political narrative. Mr. Johnson presents so may fascinating snap shots of American history that are woven from the people and places of the South. This book is an unapologetic narrative of what makes the Southern United States such a great place to live if you share southern values. If you are thinking of a socioeconomic realignment down South, this book is a must read!

Make no mistake about it, this book is apologetically Southern. The author presents The South in a positive but necessary light. I say that because the region gets a bad rap in the mainstream media. I was born and raised in South Texas so my culture was a little different than the one in The Deep South. I lived in Alabama for 2 years and traveled all over the southern states; I learned all the stereotypes I had heard growing up about The South were completely untrue.I recommend this book for people not from The South; it is an eye opening experience and the author gives book recommendations for further reading. The book can get a little preachy at times but it's not meant to be a scholarly work. It's more of an introduction to a misunderstood region of America. A lot of the negative reviews if not all of them are by people not from The South or have never lived there. It is a fairly easy read and the author has a flare about him that is reminiscent of a Southerner.

Very interesting view on history especially in the current climate interesting