Whistling Dixie: Dispatches from the South

In this humorous, perceptive collection, Reed, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, gathers his essays which have appeared in Southern publications, among them Daily Tar Heel and Georgia Historical Quarterly . The pieces, most of them on pop culture, with side ventures into politics and religion, reveal the author to be an unreconstructed, if enlightened Rebel, a political conservative but not an ideologue, and a cheerleader for the qualities he finds admirable in Southern life today, such as politeness, self-reliance and the desire to eradicate racial injustice. Reed also praises less universally appealing ``Southern cooking''--his recipe for Vienna sausage sandwiches will turn every stomach north of Richmond--but otherwise readers will find this collection palatable. (Oct.)