cover image American Crisis, Southern Solutions: From Where We Stand, Peril and Promise

American Crisis, Southern Solutions: From Where We Stand, Peril and Promise

. NewSouth, $25.95 (280pp) ISBN 978-1-58838-228-3

Following his 2004 title, Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent, author and New Orleans resident Dunbar (Tubby Meets Katrina) presents a new collection of essays from southern thinkers, each offering a stance on U.S. policy ranging from education to warfare. Much of the work focuses on speaking truth to power, standing up against policies that resonate with the lessons and legacy of Deep South politics (including slavery, Jim Crow and the Republican Party's ""Southern Strategy""). Dunbar's own essay is a disheartening tour of the new segregation in U.S. schools, now based on income (and only indirectly on race); it's especially intense in higher education, making class mobility more difficult than ever. One of the most stimulating essays, ""Reducing Environmental Burdens"" by Emory University's Ellen G. Spears, illuminates how environmental issues have dovetailed with the Civil Rights movement, ""prompted in part by a 1987 report on environmental racism, Toxic Wastes and Race."" Elsewhere, Wade Rathke looks at labor, Jason Berry reports on the legacy of Hurricane Katrina, Doug Davis discusses immigration and Laughlin McDonald takes on ""ballot security."" Smart but sensationalized, Dunbar's collection will rouse the progressively-inclined, and should give any open-minded reader worthwhile points to consider.