Overview
This timely and provocative book contains essays from twelve leading Southern historians, activists, civil rights attorneys, law professors, and theologians. They discuss militarism, religion, the environment, voting rights, the Patriot Act, the economy, prisons and crime, and other subjects significant to the South and the Nation in the ongoing debate about the future of the United States. The writers come from, or have been active in the affairs of, each of the former Confederate states. The twelve share the beliefs that the current policies of our national administration sacrifice the interests of the poor and the people who work for a living to the interests of a privileged elite, that the power of money and the military must be tethered, that the natural environment must be sheltered, and that racial justice matters. A common sentiment is dismay at the deepening chasm that now divides America -- and specifically the South -- into hostile armies whose leaders are fast losing whatever motivation they ever had to pursue compromise and cooperation, and the common good. As former President Jimmy Carter writes in his Foreword, "The writers of this volume are all concerned about democracy and human rights, and they offer wide-ranging and incisive essays. Some are inspiring; some are disturbing. I am sure that readers will be provoked by them and will learn from them, as I have."Synopsis
This timely and provocative book contains essays from twelve leading Southern historians, activists, civil rights attorneys, law professors, and theologians. They discuss militarism, religion, the environment, voting rights, the Patriot Act, the economy, prisons and crime, and other subjects significant to the South and the Nation in the ongoing debate about the future of the United States. The writers come from, or have been active in the affairs of, each of the former Confederate states. The twelve share the beliefs that the current policies of our national administration sacrifice the interests of the poor and the people who work for a living to the interests of a privileged elite, that the power of money and the military must be tethered, that the natural environment must be sheltered, and that racial justice matters. A common sentiment is dismay at the deepening chasm that now divides America -- and specifically the South -- into hostile armies whose leaders are fast losing whatever motivation they ever had to pursue compromise and cooperation, and the common good. As former President Jimmy Carter writes in his Foreword, "The writers of this volume are all concerned about democracy and human rights, and they offer wide-ranging and incisive essays. Some are inspiring; some are disturbing. I am sure that readers will be provoked by them and will learn from them, as I have."
The Washington Post - Edwin M. Yoder, Jr.
In Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent edited by Anthony Dunbar, 12 eminent Southern lawyers and academicians register their dissent from the present Republican ascendancy … there are serious and compelling essays by Dan Carter on the war in Iraq, Gene Nichols on Southern income disparities, Dan Pollitt on the Ashcroftian experiments with our liberties. They make a case that the Dixie Rip van Winkles have overslept.
Editorials
Edwin M. Yoder, Jr.
In Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent edited by Anthony Dunbar, 12 eminent Southern lawyers and academicians register their dissent from the present Republican ascendancy … there are serious and compelling essays by Dan Carter on the war in Iraq, Gene Nichols on Southern income disparities, Dan Pollitt on the Ashcroftian experiments with our liberties. They make a case that the Dixie Rip van Winkles have overslept.— The Washington Post