Description
Book SynopsisPresents the US South as a pulsating rhetorical landscape, a place where words and symbols rooted in a deeply problematic past litter the ground and contaminate the soil. This provocative text focuses on predominantly white southern universities where Old South rhetoric still reverberates.
Trade ReviewThe old saying goes that one can only be harmed by sticks and stones, not words. That has never been true, not even when issued as a playground taunt. Stephen M. Monroe's
Heritage and Hate demonstrates the power of words, symbols, and narrative to harm, hide, and reveal truth. In clear, measured prose, Monroe shows readers how Confederate images and language contain layers of mythologies that obscure history and perpetuate the idea of white supremacy. This is a book that should be read not only by southerners but also by anyone interested in the ways we use language and symbols in American society to wield and maintain power." - W. Ralph Eubanks, author of
Ever is a Long Time: A Journey into Mississippi's Dark Past"
Heritage and Hate investigates the origins and contemporary uses of ‘a panoply of Old South words and symbols,' studying the cheers, university slogans, and online messages of students as well as the words and silences of university leaders. The volume's unique contribution is to analyze those words and symbols as rhetoric that, whether or not it is obvious, was and is always making arguments about power, race, and belonging." - Ted M. Ownby, William F. Winter Professor of History, University of Mississippi, and author of
American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. "A Name So Beautiful and Appropriate": "Ole Miss" and the Ideology of Self-Identification from 1897 to 1971
- Chapter 2. What Is a Hotty Toddy? From School Cheer to Racist Jeer
- Chapter 3. Minimization at Mizzou: Confederate Rhetoric and Interpretative Difference
- Chapter 4. Obfuscation at the University of Mississippi
- Chapter 5. Football, Flags, and Rhetorical Fury
- Chapter 6. Origins and Repercussions: The Continuum of Confederate Rhetoric
- Chapter 7. Reasons for Hope? Scholars of Language and a New South Rhetoric
- Epilogue
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
