In a collection of essays as provocative as the region that inspired them, leading historians and literary critics offer a combined effort to define Southern identity at the end of the twentieth century. Removed from the devotional, certifying, and celebratory view of the South that has dominated books of this genre, The Southern State of Mind addresses the question of whether inherited Southern values, problems, and contradictions have survived the onslaught of modernization. The overarching dialogue among the contributors illustrates how the ideological self-identification in the South has a powerful potential for shaping national attitudes.