Mississippi: An American Journey

To most Americans, Mississippi is not a state but a scar, the place where segregation took its ugliest form and struck most savagely at its challengers. But to many Americans, Mississippi is also home. And it is this paradox, with all its overtones of history and heartache, that Anthony Walton--whose parents escaped Mississippi for the relative civility of the Midwest--explores in this resonant and disquieting work of travel writing, history, and memoir.

Traveling from the Natchez Trace to the yawning cotton fields of the Delta and from plantation houses to air-conditioned shopping malls, Walton challenged us to see Mississippi's memories of comfort alongside its legacies of slavery and the Klan. He weaves in the stories of his family, as well as those of patricians and sharecroppers, redneck demagogues and martyred civil rights workers, novelists and bluesmen, black and white. Mississippi is a national saga in brilliant microcosm, splendidly written and profoundly moving.

Author: Anthony Walton
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 01/28/1997
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.25w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9780679777410

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/04/1997 pg. 32

About the Author
Anthony Walton studied at Notre Dame and Brown University and currently lives in Brunswick, Maine.