Product Description

This 7th volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture marks the first encyclopedia on the food cultures of the South. Articles explore not only what southerners eat but also why they eat it. The volume contains 149 articles, almost all of them new to this edition of the Encyclopedia. Longer essays address the historical development of southern cuisine and ethnic contributions to the region's foodways. Topical essays explore iconic southern foods such as MoonPies and fried catfish, prominent restaurants and personalities, and the food cultures of subregions and individual cities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236708 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-24
• Released on: 2007-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"Explores everything from the differences between styles of Southern barbecue to New Orleans cuisine and gumbo z'herbes."
— Southern Register

"A primer on the nation's foremost regional cuisine."
— The Courier

This first-of-its-kind study of Southern foodways is intellectual enough for history buffs and entertaining enough for kitchen cooks.

—Delta Magazine

I'm as pleased to have this book as little Bobby Willis is to have all that food on page five.
—Roy Blount Jr.

Anyone even mildly curious about what it is to be southern will find nothing here but the truth. Amen, and pass the okra.
—Alton Brown

About the Author
John T. Edge is director of the Southern Foodways Alliance. He is author of several books, including Fried Chicken: An American Story, and serves as general editor of the book series Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing (volumes 1, 2, and 3 of which are available from the University of North Carolina Press).

Charles Reagan Wilson is director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and coeditor of the original Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

Customer Reviews

Essential, but Uneven
I have the original "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture," and I am delighted to see that a new edition is being published, and in an expanded, multi-volume format, too. On the whole, I like what I've read so far quite a lot. Most articles strike a pleasing balance between the academic and the popular, with both good general information and entertaining tidbits.

I do have a few reservations, though. Some of the articles in this volume (and other volumes, as well) quote authors who aren't credited in the short end-of-article bibliographies. The articles occasionally seem rather random and choppily edited. And some articles appear to drag in race just so the authors can assure the reader that slavery and Jim Crow were Very Bad Indeed. (Are they instructing the presumably-white-Southern and thus presumably-benighted reader? Or do they simply feel obligated to throw in a "racism is terrible" remark as a sort of "Hail, Mary!", regardless of how appropriate to the particular context?) Sometimes this tendency is merely a matter of stating the obvious, but sometimes it achieves a certain level of entertaining absurdity, e.g., after noting that African Americans during the Jim Crow era often had to carry their meals because restaurants wouldn't serve them: "While their home-cooked meal was probably better than what they would find in a restaurant on the road, for most blacks the food took on a bitter quality because of the lack of freedom to choose."

In addition, I have come across one case (in a different volume of the series) where the author of an article quotes her own theory extensively and in the third person, in the process commending the scholar (herself) for shedding new light on the topic. All of these lapses in professionalism suggest that many articles were farmed out to graduate students and perhaps not sufficiently edited afterwards.

I also wonder that of all the experts connected with this project, none of them seem aware that "Mammy" is a traditional British and Irish equivalent for "Mommy" or "Mummy," and that (especially in old songs and rhymes) it doesn't always necessarily refer to a black slave or servant.

As a folklorist, I could also wish for a little more on the folklore of food, but my objections in general are on the level of quibbles. This is a very worthwhile project, and I look forward to the yet unpublished volumes.