Reviews
Praise for William Faulkner and Southern History: "Mississippi--with its heady brew of race, sex, and violence--is brilliantly reconfigured in Joel Williamson's William Faulkner and Southern History." --The Nation "As rigorous as the best history and as absorbing as the best novel." --William E. Cain, Wellesley College "Williamson, who once described himself as a failed novelist turned historian, demonstrates a remarkable gift for language, image, and detail. His aim is to reproduce the world which created William Faulkner rather than the other way around. And he succeeds... Williamson... understands the creative artistry involved in writing biography." --Charles J. Bussey, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society "No one who reads this complex and elegantly written book from cover to cover can help but be impressed by the intellectual depth and breadth of Williamson's passionately humanistic scholarship." --Raymond Arsenault, North Carolina Historical Review Praise for The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation: "The most conspicuous landmark of scholarship in an important field... A deeper and more thorough penetration of the endless complexities of the subject than any ever attempted before." --C. Vann Woodward, The New Republic "Williamson writes with enormous energy, authority, and intelligence... Grappling with a central problem in the history of his nation, his native South, and his own life, gives The Crucible of Race the force that elevates it from fine scholarly study to a work of great history." --Ira Berlin, Florida Historical Quarterly "A major reinterpretation... [of] the white Southern psyche after the Civil War....Williamson has deepened our understanding of [Southern history's] tragic dimensions and enduring legacies." --Leon F. Litwack, New York Times Book Review "A remarkable mixture of careful, empirically based historical work and free-wheeling cultural commentary in the vein of W. J. Cash and other imaginative writers on the Southern psyche." --George M. Frederickson, New York Review of Books "An audacious, and often moving, account of one white southern historian's attempt to unravel the complex history of white attitudes and ideas about race." --Dan T. Carter, American Historical Review, Praise for William Faulkner and Southern History:"Mississippi--with its heady brew of race, sex, and violence--is brilliantly reconfigured in Joel Williamson's William Faulkner and Southern History." --The Nation"As rigorous as the best history and as absorbing as the best novel." --William E. Cain, Wellesley College"Williamson, who once described himself as a failed novelist turned historian, demonstrates a remarkable gift for language, image, and detail. His aim is to reproduce the world which created William Faulkner rather than the other way around. And he succeeds... Williamson... understands the creative artistry involved in writing biography." --Charles J. Bussey, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"No one who reads this complex and elegantly written book from cover to cover can help but be impressed by the intellectual depth and breadth of Williamson's passionately humanistic scholarship." --Raymond Arsenault, North Carolina Historical ReviewPraise for The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation:"The most conspicuous landmark of scholarship in an important field... A deeper and more thorough penetration of the endless complexities of the subject than any ever attempted before." --C. Vann Woodward, The New Republic"Williamson writes with enormous energy, authority, and intelligence... Grappling with a central problem in the history of his nation, his native South, and his own life, gives The Crucible of Race the force that elevates it from fine scholarly study to a work of great history." --Ira Berlin, Florida Historical Quarterly"A major reinterpretation... [of] the white Southern psyche after the Civil War....Williamson has deepened our understanding of [Southern history's] tragic dimensions and enduring legacies." --Leon F. Litwack, New York Times Book Review"A remarkable mixture of careful, empirically based historical work and free-wheeling cultural commentary in the vein of W. J. Cash and other imaginative writers on the Southern psyche." --George M. Frederickson, New York Review of Books"An audacious, and often moving, account of one white southern historian's attempt to unravel the complex history of white attitudes and ideas about race." --Dan T. Carter, American Historical Review"[A] well-researched but sentimental review of Presley's life and influence on US culture." -CHOICE, Praise for William Faulkner and Southern History: "Mississippi--with its heady brew of race, sex, and violence--is brilliantly reconfigured in Joel Williamson's William Faulkner and Southern History." --The Nation "As rigorous as the best history and as absorbing as the best novel." --William E. Cain, Wellesley College "Williamson, who once described himself as a failed novelist turned historian, demonstrates a remarkable gift for language, image, and detail. His aim is to reproduce the world which created William Faulkner rather than the other way around. And he succeeds... Williamson... understands the creative artistry involved in writing biography." --Charles J. Bussey, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society "No one who reads this complex and elegantly written book from cover to cover can help but be impressed by the intellectual depth and breadth of Williamson's passionately humanistic scholarship." --Raymond Arsenault, North Carolina Historical Review Praise for The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation: "The most conspicuous landmark of scholarship in an important field... A deeper and more thorough penetration of the endless complexities of the subject than any ever attempted before." --C. Vann Woodward, The New Republic "Williamson writes with enormous energy, authority, and intelligence... Grappling with a central problem in the history of his nation, his native South, and his own life, gives The Crucible of Race the force that elevates it from fine scholarly study to a work of great history." --Ira Berlin, Florida Historical Quarterly "A major reinterpretation... [of] the white Southern psyche after the Civil War....Williamson has deepened our understanding of [Southern history's] tragic dimensions and enduring legacies." --Leon F. Litwack, New York Times Book Review "A remarkable mixture of careful, empirically based historical work and free-wheeling cultural commentary in the vein of W. J. Cash and other imaginative writers on the Southern psyche." --George M. Frederickson, New York Review of Books "An audacious, and often moving, account of one white southern historian's attempt to unravel the complex history of white attitudes and ideas about race." --Dan T. Carter, American Historical Review "[A] well-researched but sentimental review of Presley's life and influence on US culture." -CHOICE
