Engaging a medley of perspectives and methodologies, The Sporting World of the Modern South examines how sports map the social, political, and cultural landscapes of the modern South. In essays on the ''backcountry'' fighter stereotypes portrayed in modern professional wrestling and the significance of Crimson Tide coaching legend Paul ''Bear'' Bryant for white Alabamians, contributors explore the symbols that have shaped southern regional identities since the Civil War. Other essays tackle gender and race relations in intercollegiate athletics, uncover the roles athletic competitions played in desegregating the South, and address the popularity of NASCAR in the southern states. Pairing the action and anecdotes of good sportswriting with rock-solid scholarship, The Sporting World of the Modern South adds historical and anthropological perspectives to legends and lore from the gridiron to the racetrack. This collection, with its innovative attention to the interplay between athletics and regional identity, is an insightful and compelling contribution to southern and sports history.
''[This volume] is about how sports have reflected and influenced the evolution of social justice in the last 150 years of southern history... Well researched.'' -- Choice ''Illuminates the South's role in shaping the South... Miller's collection of essays ... consider the past role of sport in Southern distinctiveness and push historians to consider more heavily the role that sport continues to play.'' -- J.R. Duke, The Southern Register ''Miller and his colleagues have made a valuable contribution to the study of southern sports. Students of southern history will find much of interest in this useful collection.'' --The North Carolina Historical Review ADVANCE PRAISE ''This fascinating book will become a landmark in the historiography of sport. Because sports are so important in the region's culture and because the essayists take a broad view of their subjects, this collection will also appeal to everyone interested in the South's obsession with honor, its conceptions of manhood and womanhood, its transition into modernity, and especially its race relations.'' -- Gaines Foster, author of Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and the Emergence of the New South, 1865-1913 ''This volume is a challenging interpretation that significantly advances the study of sports in America and provides the best single volume on sports in the South.'' -- Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi
