Capturing the South

Scott L. Matthews's book analyzes what documentary representations of the South contributed to the biases and stereotypes so resented by those who were documented. Matthews's approach to this large endeavor is to choose five regions and study the prominent photographers and sociologists who documented these areas, including the sociologist Howard Odum's Community and Folk Background Studies; Jack Delano's Farm Security Administration (Fsa) photographs of Greene County, Georgia; John Cohen and Roscoe Holcomb and the Kentucky Folk Revival; Danny Lyon's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Sncc) photographs; and Walker Evans and James Agee's examination of Hale County, Alabama (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, 1941). Matthews's focus on these biographies illustrates how the public's understanding of the South was significantly influenced by these men's white, middle-class, male points of view. Matthews also argues that these individuals' work continues to negatively affect how the South is represented

Political science · Praise · Sociology · White (mutation · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology