“Though the Hard South cannot be evaded, most southerners know there is more to the region than that. The Soft South is here as well, cheek by jowl with its evil twin. Can we have one without the other?”

As W. J. Cash reminded us long ago, there are many Souths. He listed the familiar subdivisions created by geography: the plantation South, the mountain South, the urban South, and so on. But there are also multiple Souths set apart by experience and perspective that may overlap and coexist cross the boundaries of visible space. There is the black South and the white, the gentry South and plain folk, and the old-timey South and its New, Newer, and Newest incarnations, all competing for attention and affiliation.