understanding the american south
a multigenre syllabus on the history, identity, and culture(s) of the american southeast - a region often known otherwise as simply “the south” or “the deep south,” consisting in part of “the bible belt” and parts of appalachia.
created by moski
last updated April, 2026
Comments
a few notes:
- while among my southern friends this might seem controversial, i’m including florida despite the fact of its contemporary differences from the rest of american southern culture. historically and in certain areas of the state, its connection to the history and identity of the american south cannot be overlooked!
- i am always eager for more voices and recommendations! especially black southern voices!
What is the florida discourse? (My dad’s roots are georgia/tennessee but he relocated to fl before i was born but i dont know much abt this side of my heritage)
moskiOP
it’s more jokey discourse!! a lot of people from the “deep south” argue that florida and texas are not part of the region, despite being physically in the region if that makes sense. pointing to florida and texas having very different state-specific cultures compared to the rest of the american south! but while i agree that a lot of southern florida differs from the rest of the us south it shares a lot of the same history and i don’t think we can totally write it off as not southern. idk it’s complex and people (usually jokingly) argue abt it all the time 😭
Oh id love to more if youre able to a tldr of the different cultures?
moskiOP
ooo yes!!! i’ll definitely write a little something up and maybe find some resources too! it’s talked about a lot online and i am definitely not the definitive source but i can give my personal outlook and some things ive read!!
I would love! Whenever u have spoons. Thank u sm!!!!!!!!!!
Someone on wattpad (we were like 14?) from louisiana once told me florida (or georgia?? Idr) was NOT the south, very seriously. I have been confused until now (though still a bit bc they very werent joking)
moskiOP
ugh people get SO needlessly upset abt this!! i honestly think a lot of it is condescension towards florida rather than any sort of honest consideration of culture and regional identity. personally i consider florida to be a part of the south but not a part of subregions like the bible belt! im sorry that person was so weird w u ://
(Tongue in cheek as an Alabamian) The gist is: Geographically, Florida is the South. Culturally, the panhandle is Southern. A phrase I've heard is the further north you go (in Florida), the more south you get. Middle of Florida is Disney/Tourists/Retirees. South Florida is heavily influenced by Cuban immigrants. So all that makes it culturally diverse but kind of more distinctly striated than generalizations about other states.
I found this joke map that illustrates the idea:
moskiOP
yes!!! the panhandle is definitively southern no question
As a Texan I am in a constant identity crisis because of this haha
My friends from the coasts, especially the NE, definitely see us as Southern. But people in the Deep South (and other Southern states) often don't consider us Southerners.
In school, they always told us we were part of the Southwest with OK, NM, and AZ, something my friends in the NE say doesn't exist (but those friends also usually couldn't place midwestern states on a map sooo)
Texas is also huge so I feel like as with Florida, where you are in TX can greatly determine cultural identity
Reminds me of the time a random guy tried to (angrily) mansplain that “actually West Virginia is not the South” and I was like “…have you met a West Virginian…have you been to WV lmao”
(yes it is Appalachia but it is also the South!!)
Yet another wonderful reminder for me to read The Sound and The Fury! and Their Eyes Were Watching God and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil both sound so interesting. Another point for moski and another L for my TBR 😂
moskiOP
hehehe tysm amanda!!! maybe we can buddy read one!
Hahaha that would be fun! I don't know which one you're most interested in, but I'm down for any, they all sound really interesting. Just let me know when you're free/would be up for it, and we can plan a cute buddy read 🙂↕️. No pressure of course!
moskiOP
either sound and fury or midnight in the garden sound great to me!!! maybe in may? my april is CRAZY 😭😭
I feel like I will need another person's help reading Faulkner again, for sure, since I barely understood As I Lay Dying 😅 so TSaTF sounds great! But I fear it'll have to wait because my May and June are going to be insane too, since I'm graduating in July so I'll be riddled with exams and my thesis until then 😩😩😩 this adult life is getting ridiculous. Good luck this april with whatever's coming your way maggie! We need to revisit this plan when we both can hahaha
moski as a tennesseean i am going absolutely wild for this list. honestly my favorite i’ve seen on PB yet
moskiOP
oh this makes me so happy to hear 🥹
Love this list! I’ve seen three of these authors speak at events, have gotten to have conversations with two of those, and shared a meal with one of them. (And visited Faulkner's house!)
You might want to take a look at adding What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and the follow up/reaction/revisiting And Their Children After Them.
A few more that are on my TBR but seem like they’d fit based on blurbs: The Indicted South: Public Criticism, Southern Inferiority, and the Politics of Whiteness, Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class (cited in Caste, if you’ve read that), The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity, The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives.
oh yay i’m so glad! i’ve got away down south on here, but i’ve added the others!!! what great suggestions :)) thank you so much! which authors have you met??
I've seen Rick Bragg speak (in conversation with Roy Wood Jr.!). I've gotten to see Imani Perry speak three times and got to chit chat a bit with her at the receptions afterward and she's signed my copies of Back in Blues and South to America. And I used to go to the symposia that John T Edge's former org put on annually and happened to sit next to him at one of the lunch events and we ended up chatting and sharing some snacks. I ended up doing a little freelance work for them somewhat coincidentally a few years after. And he visited my town on his book tour last year (4 years after I worked with them) and he recognized me and was (still) super nice!
I just finished reading Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams (non-fiction) and then this list just popped up in my feed. It’s a short yet powerful read, set in GA, 1918. I think it would fit your list. Either way I highly recommend it!
moskiOP
thank you so so much for the rec!! i’ll look into that one for sure - it sounds like a really great and important read 💛 thank you again for sharing it!!
I’d recommend The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty!
I second your thoughts on Florida, as soon as you drive out of the sprawl of the cities, it’s definitely the south. Everywhere rural or just less congested in Florida is very southern. Here are a couple recommendations for your list: Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy: historical fiction, 1951, Florida, KKK, Thurgood Marshall And Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell: historical fiction modeled on the true story of Emmitt Till and the reverberations that lasted for decades
