Spying on the South

March 15, 2019
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist wanders Dixie in search of what makes it so intractably un-American.Picking up, in a sense, where Confederates in the Attic (1998) left off, Horwitz (Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War, 2011, etc.) follows a fruitful trail in the footsteps of one-time journalist Frederick Law Olmsted, who traveled through the South reporting on the region for the precursor to the New York Times before reinventing himself as "a visionary architect of New York's Central Park, among many other spaces." Olmsted found a land bent on racial suppression, even as blacks and whites lived side by side, as well as one on the brink of civil war; Horwitz wonders how much things have changed since then. He discovered plenty of difference. For example, in West Virginia, a state that seceded from secession to rejoin the Union, the author passed time with coal miners who have been perfectly happy to destroy their almost-heaven while complaining that federal environmental scientists "find a puddle in your yard and call it a wetland." Like Olmsted, Horwitz's circuitous path took him along the Mississippi River and into Texas, perhaps the most schizophrenic of states today. As the resident of one East Texas town told him, after the author witnessed one scene after another of casual racism punctuated by an oddly easy mixing of black and white residents, the place is "somewhere between Mayberry and Deliverance." Horwitz seldom reaches deep; his book is casually observed and travelogue-ish ("Eagle Pass was no longer a mud-and-whiskey bedlam at the edge of the American frontier"), more Paul Theroux than de Tocqueville. Still, one can't help but notice that the things that occupied Olmsted's attention haven't changed much in the years since the earlier traveler toured a region that sometimes defies description.Not as sprightly as some of the author's past reports from the fringes but provocative and well worth reading.

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Starred review from March 25, 2019
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic) follows the trail of Frederick Law Olmsted, 19th-century reporter and legendary landscape architect, across the American South in this expansive and generously conceived travelogue
. His pursuit of Olmsted, “a Connecticut Yankee exploring the Cotton Kingdom on the eve of secession and civil war” for the New York Daily Times, takes Horwitz by train, boat, car, and mule through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, as he documents the “diversity and capaciousness of America.” Horwitz observes general challenges throughout the region—a “heartland hollowed out by economic and social decay,” disappearing rural towns, toxic industries, jobs moving from manufacture to tourism, obesity, and drugs—and allegiances, especially to evangelical Christianity and guns, but also discerns a unique character in each region, among them the Cajun identity of south Louisiana and the history of German radicals in Texas. Horwitz delights in the absurd and easily interlaces history with his many adventures—among them cruises on a coal tow and a steamboat, mudding in Louisiana, a re-enactment at the Alamo—where he encounters generous hospitality, warm intelligence, and, occasionally, bald bigotry. Throughout, Horwitz brings humor, curiosity, and care to capturing the voices of the larger-than-life characters he encounters. A huge canvas of intricate details, this thoughtful and observant work delicately navigates the long shadow of America’s history. Photos. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM.

April 15, 2019
In the early 1850s, before Frederick Law Olmsted was known as the visionary landscape architect of New York's Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds, and the Biltmore Estate, he was a 30-year-old traveling correspondent commissioned by the newly formed New York Times to report pseudonymously on the pre-Civil War culture and slave economy of the Southern states. Horwitz (Midnight Rising, 2011), himself a Northerner and immersive travel writer, retraces Olmsted's 1852 journey from Washington, D.C., to Texas by train, coal barge, steamboat, and other period-specific transport. As he chats up locals and encounters a variety of modern people, places, and politics of the former "Cotton Kingdom," he intersperses Olmsted's commentary with his own. A tour is only as good as its guide, and Horwitz is a seasoned one?inquisitive, open-minded, and opting for observation over judgment, whether at a dive bar, monster truck rally, the Creation Museum, or a historical plantation. The book will appeal to fans of travelogue, Civil War-era history, and current events by way of Southern sensibilities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2019

In his new travelog through the American Southwest, Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic) follows in the footsteps of Frederick Law Olmsted, who reported on the South in the 1850s for New York newspapers. Here, Horwitz recounts many memorable people and experiences, including a ride on a slow-moving coal barge on the Ohio River, a weekend of mud racing in Louisiana, an ill-fated trip by mule across Texas, and a visit to adjoining border towns in Texas and Mexico. Similar to Olmsted, who was writing on the eve of the Civil War, many of Horwitz's conversations turned to politics. The author traveled during the early stages of the 2016 presidential campaign and encountered many disaffected rural voters excited by the candidacy of Donald Trump. These impressions are exaggerated by the little attention Horwitz gives to urban areas and the relatively few number of accounts of African Americans. Horwitz is a skilled writer, and his vignettes are compelling to read. Yet, without a more consistent thread tying these observations together, the looming 2016 election becomes the most compelling theme. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in a selective but engaging glimpse into modern life in the rural South. [See Prepub Alert, 11/19/18.]--Nicholas Graham, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2019

Sent by the rising-star New York Times across the 1850s American South, young travel writer Frederick Law Olmsted witnessed a region deeply divided from the rest of the country and fiercely defensive of slavery. Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with a stack of best-selling books (e.g., Confederates in the Attic), tracked Olmstead's route (often authentically, via rail, riverboat, and horseback) to consider an America today that's equally divided and defensive of its values.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.