2024 the best place on earth review

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(as of Dec 24, 2024 16:18:07 UTC - Details)

"Cotton obsessed, Negro obsessed," Rupert Vance called it in 1935. "Nowhere but in the Mississippi Delta," he said, "are antebellum conditions so nearly preserved."

This crescent of bottomlands between Memphis and Vicksburg, lined by the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, remains in some ways what it was in 1860: a land of rich soil, wealthy planters, and desperate poverty - the blackest and poorest counties in all the South. And yet it is a cultural treasure house as well - the home of Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Charley Pride, Walker Percy, Elizabeth Spencer, and Shelby Foote. Painting a fascinating portrait of the development and survival of the Mississippi Delta, a society and economy that is often seen as the most extreme in all the South, James C. Cobb offers a comprehensive history of the Delta, from its first white settlement in the 1820s to the present. Exploring the rich black culture of the Delta, Cobb explains how it survived and evolved in the midst of poverty and oppression, beginning with the first settlers in the overgrown, disease-ridden Delta before the Civil War to the bitter battles and incomplete triumphs of the civil rights era.

In this comprehensive account, Cobb offers new insight into "the most southern place on earth," untangling the enigma of grindingly poor but prolifically creative Mississippi Delta.

Reviewer: JoséMaria BlancoWhite
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A social history of epic and literary proportions
Review: It's a very readable book with lots of information about The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta all the way from Reconstruction to our modern Welfare times. The intervention of the Federal government to allegedly improve the status of blacks, whether it was at the wake of the War or by means of the New Deal, and up to the latest impulses of liberal Big Government, has never done any good: only shifted the paternalistic role from the white man to the welfare state. It's curious to see how blacks have reacted to this paternalism through the times. Unlike the prodigal son, he has it both ways: comes home to cash his welfare check, then goes out rambling.Most revealing to me was the terrible impact of the 1967 one-dollar-per-hour minimum wage, the dream of liberal social scientists and planners. It made the black workers poorer, so much so that they had to borrow from the planters, which increased their dependency.The book is most interesting because it is life from the ground, from the plantation and street; and it's also a cultural history, the American way: made by the common man and for the common man to read. Therefore it includes a succint but juicy chapter on the Blues, and another or the density of literary figures in the area.It reads smoothly, without any academic jargon, left mostly to the voices of the characters themselves, their laments, their ambitions, their joys of some and pains of others. It's definitely the description of the lives of these people, blacks and whites, and letting us hear their own testimonies or anecdotes that make this an important book.The following excerpt -to me, at least- says it all about what meant to live in the Delta:"Finding himself in an elevator and carrying a load of packages, Richard Wright was assisted by a white man who took his hat off for him and placed it upon his packages. Wright explained that 'to have said "thank you" would have made the white man think that you thought that you were receiving from him a personal service. For such an act I have seen Negroes take a blow in the mouth. Finding the first alternative distasteful, and the second dangerous, I hit upon an acceptable course ... pretended that my packages were about to spill and appeared deeply distressed ... In this fashion I evaded having to acknowledge his service ... and savaged a slender shred of personal pride."If that isn't stuff for a classic, what is! Now figure thousands of possible situations in everyday life and what a panorama you get! Not material for teenage-minded Hollywood, for sure. No wonder so may artists and musicians nationwide got their inspiration from the South.Here you get American History condensed in a few counties, like in a lab. History by the people and for the people. The history that counts.

Reviewer: max mccall
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This oversight of his provides an excellent opportunity for other historians to trace the evolution of ...
Review: A worthy read and chock full of information and impressions about the Delta. It also clears up, for some, what is meant by "delta" in Mississppi-- not that River's delta, but that of the Yazoo. (This is important; a respected French scholar of Richard Wright's work wrote a biography of him in which he spoke repeatedly of his birth in the "flat, desolate land of the Mississippi River Delta", when of course Wright was born down the road from my grandmama, in Franklin/Adams County in the southwest corner of the State). Given my own geographical prejudices, I was a bit surprised that there is not even a mention of Natchez. Much of the plantation culture-- rich landowners pretending to aristocracy, large slave holdings, concentrated wealth, a strict caste and class system-- was exported by Natchez planters who, seeking new soils to wear out with cotton, moved north to the Delta from 1840-1880. (Along with-- and I was fascinated and surprised to learn-- many absentee Yankee landowners. This also explains in part the Union sympathies in the Delta, since Natchez was a notoriously Tory, then later, anti-secessionist area). E.g.: the Percy family originated in Wilkinson County south of Natchez. This oversight of his provides an excellent opportunity for other historians to trace the evolution of the plantation culture in Southwest Mississippi and its later exportation to the Delta. Ties of economics, agriculture, and culture could be made plain. Otherwise, Mr. Cobb's book is a fine evocation of the Delta life I witnessed as a visitor when young to Percy relatives there. He successfully navigates the political spectrum by both reliving the "aristocratic" lifestyle and by recounting its depredations. On an early page, he refers to its "determination, rapacity, and cruelty", a characterization that establishes the book's tone. Remember, though, that also present in the South were creativity, perversion, hatefulness, and even love.

Reviewer: spogran
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Mississippi Delta
Review: Having been born inGreenville, Mississippi, long ago, I have loved the Delta unconditionally. This book describes its history and its life in depth in an objective way. It is not light reading, but it is valuable to those who care about the Delta or those who are curious about the area.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Outstanding
Review: Two books serve to answer, for me, the often contemptuously posed question: "If slavery ended 150 years ago, why haven't African-Americans seen greater progress?"The first is "Slavery by Another Name" which details the 50 or so years after Reconstruction in which hundreds of thousands of Southern African-Amrericans were forced into involuntary servitude, incarceration and peonage.This is the second book that effectively enlightens on that issue. Full of details of the Delta as a microcosm of Southern machinations to retain white economic and social supremacy, it is deeply researched, and full of factual, historical recounting, as well as eye-witness accounts and anecdotes from officials and ordinary citizens on both sides of the colour line. Deeply interesting and eye-opening.

Reviewer: Drew Knox
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good writing overwhelmed by poor typography
Review: The publishers did a huge disfavor to the author. In an age when most anyone can select an easily legible typeface, this book is the exception. The low quality is noticeable on a quick flip-through and on every page as the densely-packed letters brake reading speed to a crawl. Maybe this is not an issue with the Kindle version, but in print, it's a large and unwanted obstacle that interferes with an otherwise delightful and informative story-telling.

Reviewer: MDR
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Received book.
Review: Received an interest read.

Reviewer: Andy B.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Long essay style of prose. If you are interested in the deep south it's an informative read which still relates 30 year on from its publication

Reviewer: linda crozier
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I have an interest in all thingsSouthern

Reviewer: Steve Murray
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a great overview for anyone; including those looking to visit. The author is an academic so understandably its referenced and the language is slanted to that audience i.e. some may find it a hard read at times. Another tip is that the typography in the book is very small, so you may want to get it on a Kindle or whatever you have.

Reviewer: Ostendblues
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good book but very small print.