“Joseph Crespino’s interpretation of To Kill a Mockingbird must be politically motivated, because it certainly is not based on the text.”

It’s been some time since an essay has provoked as much debate around here as Joseph Crespino’s “The Strange Career of Atticus Finch” [from the Summer 2000 issue of Southern Cultures]. In his essay Mr. Crespino questioned whether Atticus Finch, given current racial attitudes and mores, still ought to be considered a hero, and concluded that he shouldn’t—that today we should instead view To Kill a Mockingbird‘s protagonist as a paternalist. He was, after all, a white man helping a Black man, which certainly did little to upset the traditional racial power dynamic in the South.