Ghost Dancing on the Cracker Circuit

Library Journal

Brown (American studies, Emory Univ.) has traveled across the South attending small community festivals and delving into their origins and traditions. He has created here a social history of small-town Southern communities. Using festivals such as the Rattlesnake Roundup in Whigham, Georgia, and the Chittlin' Strut in Salley, South Carolina, he successfully shows a cross-section of an America rapidly being gobbled up by larger urban areas. He maintains that the festivals are a last-ditch effort to maintain community cohesion and identity. Brown compellingly combines sometimes humorous scenarios from these festivals with revelations on the social significance they might represent. Recommended for public and academic libraries.Sandra Knowles, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia