Destination Dixie

by Cox, Karen L.

• ISBN13: 9780813042374
• ISBN10: 0813042372
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-04
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

Once upon a time, it was impossible to drive through the South without coming across signs to "See Rock City" or similar tourist attractions. From battlegrounds to birthplaces, and sites in between, heritage tourism has always been part of how the South attracts visitors-and defines itself-yet such sites are often understudied in the scholarly literature. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the narrative of southern history told at these sites is often complicated by race, influenced by local politics, and shaped by competing memories. Included are essays on the meanings of New Orleans cemeteries; Stone Mountain, Georgia; historic Charleston, South Carolina; Yorktown National Battlefield; Selma, Alabama, as locus of the civil rights movement; and the homes of Mark Twain, Margaret Mitchell, and other notables. Destination Dixiereveals that heritage tourism in the South is about more than just marketing destinations and filling hotel rooms; it cuts to the heart of how southerners seek to shape their identity and image for a broader touring public-now often made up of northerners and southerners alike.

Author Biography

Karen L. Cox is professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and the author of the award-winning Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture and of Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
People & Places
Persistence of Fiction: One Hundred Years of Tom Sawyer at die Mark Twain Boyhood Home	p. 17
From "Lawrence Comity Negro" to National Hero: The Commemoration of Jesse Owens in Alabama	p. 49
Saving "The Dump": Race and die Restoration of the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta	p. 69
"A Tradition-Conscious Cotton City": (East) Tupelo, Mississippi, Birthplace of Elvis Presley	p. 87
Race & Slavery
"History as Tourist Bait": Inventing Somerset Place State Historic Site, 1939-1969	p. 113
"Is It Okay to Talk about Slaves?" Segregating the Past in Historic Charleston	p. 137
Selling the Civil Rights Movement through Black Political Empowerment in Selma, Alabama	p. 160
War & Remembrance
"Challenging the Interest and Reverence of all Patriotic Americans": Preservation and the Yorktown National Battlefield	p. 185
Calhoun County, Alabama: Confederate Iron Furnaces and the Remaking of History	p. 204
A Monument to Many Souths: Tourists Experience Southern Distinctiveness at Stone Mountain	p. 223
Landscape & Memory
Dead but Delightful: Tourism and Memory in New Orleans Cemeteries	p. 247
Tourism, Landscape, and History in die Great Smoky Mountains National Park	p. 267
Authenticity for Sale: The Everglades, Seminole Indians, and the Construction of a Pay-Per-View Culture	p. 285
Contributors	p. 301
Index	p. 303
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.