Kicking Back: Further Dispatches from the South

Reed, professor of sociology at the Univ. of North Carolina, here continues to expand on themes he enunciated in Whistling Dixie, Surveying the South and other books. He believes that regionalism is alive and well in the U.S. and that it flourishes the most in the South. A conservative, he argues that the Confederate flag is a symbol not of racism, although he admits that some fly it for that reason, but of gallant men who died for a lost cause; that Atlanta does not represent the New South; that Clinton and Gore are actually Southern yuppies, not the ``bubbas'' that some of the media dub them. He applauds Southern courtesy while conceding that he found politeness in Californians too; explains that in the South, pets are expected to earn their keep; and laments that ``trendy foolishness'' such as p.c. is seeping into Southern campuses. He is often humorous, and his best pieces (all of them have appeared in various periodicals) are about his travels in other parts of the country. (May)