Dixie Emporium

The ten essays in this collection focus on how southerners have marketed themselves to outsiders and identify spaces, services, and products that construct various Souths that exaggerate, refute, or self-consciously safeguard elements of southernness. Simultaneous.

Once upon a time, it was impossible to drive through the South without coming across signs to “See Rock City” or similar tourist attractions. From battlegrounds to birthplaces, and sites in between, heritage tourism has always been part of how the South attracts visitors—and defines itself—yet such sites are often understudied in the scholarly literature. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the narrative of southern history told at these sites is often complicated by race, influenced by local politics, and shaped by competing memories. Included are essays on the meanings of New Orleans cemeteries; Stone Mountain, Georgia; historic Charleston, South Carolina; Yorktown National Battlefield; Selma, Alabama, as locus of the civil rights movement; and the homes of Mark Twain, Margaret Mitchell, and other notables. Destination Dixie reveals that heritage tourism in the South is about more than just marketing destinations and filling hotel rooms; it cuts to the heart of how southerners seek to shape their identity and image for a broader touring public—now often made up of northerners and southerners alike.

Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory

You’ll pay for admission with your life . . . An amusement park hides a killer in this unforgettable thriller from “a great new talent in crime fiction” (Lee Irby, author of Bottom Feeders). As Orlando’s third-largest theme park, Empire Realm, prepares to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, a public relations disaster strikes. In a span of three weeks, two tourists are found dead, victims of strangulation. Enter Kevin Lonnegan, cop-turned-private investigator. Going undercover as a park employee in the brutal Florida summer still has to be better than the seedy workers’ comp cases and messy divorces usually thrown his way. After all, theme parks are supposed to be the happiest places on earth. But a cold-hearted killer has made this one their hunting ground . . . Praise for Thomas B. Cavanagh’s Mike Garrity novels, Head Games and Prodigal Son “An Orlando, Florida, thriller that reads like a high-speed theme park ride . . . with dark humor so sharp it’ll make you bleed.” —Brian Freeman, New York Times–bestselling author “Carl Hiaasen fans will be thrilled to know there’s a new kid on the block. If you liked Basket Case, you’ll flip over Thomas B. Cavanagh’s sardonically and outrageously funny lead character.” —Charlotte Hughes, New York Times–bestselling author “With the clarity of Robert B. Parker and the complexity of Michael Connolly, Prodigal Son disturbs and charms at the same time.” —Booklist

The Routledge History of American Foodways provides an important overview of the main themes surrounding the history of food in the Americas from the pre-colonial era to the present day. By broadly incorporating the latest food studies research, the book explores the major advances that have taken place in the past few decades in this crucial field. The volume is composed of four parts. The first part explores the significant developments in US food history in one of five time periods to situate the topical and thematic chapters to follow. The second part examines the key ingredients in the American diet throughout time, allowing authors to analyze many of these foods as items that originated in or dramatically impacted the Americas as a whole, and not just the United States. The third part focuses on how these ingredients have been transformed into foods identified with the American diet, and on how Americans have produced and presented these foods over the last four centuries. The final section explores how food practices are a means of embodying ideas about identity, showing how food choices, preferences, and stereotypes have been used to create and maintain ideas of difference. Including essays on all the key topics and issues, The Routledge History of American Foodways comprises work from a leading group of scholars and presents a comprehensive survey of the current state of the field. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of food in American culture.

A critical meditation of the iconic 24-7 roadside chain and its place in the southern imaginary Waffle House has long been touted as an icon of the American South. The restaurant’s consistent foregrounding as a resonant symbol of regional character proves relevant for understanding much about the people, events, and foodways shaping the sociopolitical contours of today’s Bible Belt. Whether approached as a comedic punchline on the Internet, television, and other popular media or elevated as a genuine touchstone of messy American modernity, Waffle House, its employees, and everyday clientele do much to transcend such one-dimensional characterizations, earning distinction in ways that regularly go unsung. Smothered and Covered: Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary is the first book to socioculturally assess the chain within the field of contemporary food studies. In this groundbreaking work, Ty Matejowsky argues that Waffle House’s often beleaguered public persona is informed by various complexities and contradictions. Critically unpacking the iconic eatery from a less reductive perspective offers readers a more realistic and nuanced portrait of Waffle House, shedding light on how it both reflects and influences a prevailing southern imaginary—an amorphous and sometimes conflicting collection of images, ideas, attitudes, practices, linguistic accents, histories, and fantasies that frames understandings about a vibrant if also paradoxical geographic region. Matejowsky discusses Waffle House’s roots in established southern foodways and traces the chain’s development from a lunch-counter restaurant that emerged across the South. He also considers Waffle House’s place in American and southern popular culture, highlighting its myriad depictions in music, television, film, fiction, stand-up comedy, and sports. Altogether, Matejowsky deftly and persuasively demonstrates how Waffle House serves as a microcosm of today’s South with all the accolades and criticisms this distinction entails.

This original and provocative study uses objects-made, collected, and imagined-to examine lynching and racial terror.

This illustrated A to Z guide covers detours, destinations, and culinary delights for your next road trip through the American South. Essential in any traveler’s glovebox, Road Sides explores the fundamentals of a well-fed road trip across the Southern United States. Entries feature detailed histories and more than one hundred original illustrations that document the many colorful sights and delicious flavors you can experience along the way. Learn the backstory of food-shaped buildings, including the folks behind Hills of Snow, a giant snow cone stand in Smithfield, North Carolina, that resembles the icy treats it sells. Discover the roots of kitschy roadside attractions, and have lunch with the state-employed mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida. Road Sides is for everyone: the driver in search of supper or superlatives (the biggest, best, and even worst), the person who cannot resist a local plaque or snack, and the kid who just wants to gawk at a peach-shaped water tower.