Description
How southern universities presently contend with an inherited panoply of words and symbols that embody and perpetuate Old South traditions
In Heritage and Hate: Old South Rhetoric at Southern Universities, Stephen M. Monroe presents 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, empowering rebel flags to stifle racial harmony, school cheers to reinforce racial barriers, and student yearbooks to create and protect an oppressive culture of exclusion. Across the region, in college towns like Oxford, Mississippi, Athens, Georgia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, communities remain locked in a difficult, recursive, and inherently rhetorical struggle wrestling with this troubling legacy.
Words, images, and symbols are not merely passive artifacts of southern history, Monroe argues, but formative agents that influence human behavior and shape historical events. Drawing on research from many disciplines, including rhetoric, southern studies, history, sociology, and African American studies, Monroe develops the concept of confederate rhetoric: the collection of Old South words and symbols that have been and remain central to the identity conflicts of the South. He charts examples of such rhetoric at work in southern universities from Reconstruction to the present day.
Tracing the long life and legacy of Old South words and symbols at southern universities, this book provides close and nuanced analysis of the rhetorical conflicts that have resulted at places like the University of Mississippi and the University of Missouri. Some conflicts erupted during the civil rights movement, when the first African American students pushed their way into all-white southern universities and colleges, and others are brewing now, as African Americans (and their progressive white peers) begin to cement genuine agency and voice in these communities. Tensions have been, and remain, high. Remnants of the old majority continue to recruit modern adherents. The white majority may be in decline by many measures, but it is also powerful and resilient, still standing guard in defense of Old South traditions.
Ultimately, Monroe offers hope and optimism, contending that if words and symbols can be used to damage and divide, then words and symbols can also be used to heal and unify. Racist rhetoric can be replaced by antiracist rhetoric. The old South can become new. While resisting naIve or facile arguments, Heritage and Hate ultimately finds the promise of progress within the tremendous power of language.
About the Author
Stephen M. Monroe is chair and assistant professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.
Reviews
The 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, 1830-1998
Book Information
ISBN 9780817320935
Author Stephen M. Monroe
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint The University of Alabama Press
Publisher The University of Alabama Press
Weight(grams) 575g
In Heritage and Hate: Old South Rhetoric at Southern Universities, Stephen M. Monroe presents 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, empowering rebel flags to stifle racial harmony, school cheers to reinforce racial barriers, and student yearbooks to create and protect an oppressive culture of exclusion. Across the region, in college towns like Oxford, Mississippi, Athens, Georgia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, communities remain locked in a difficult, recursive, and inherently rhetorical struggle wrestling with this troubling legacy.
Words, images, and symbols are not merely passive artifacts of southern history, Monroe argues, but formative agents that influence human behavior and shape historical events. Drawing on research from many disciplines, including rhetoric, southern studies, history, sociology, and African American studies, Monroe develops the concept of confederate rhetoric: the collection of Old South words and symbols that have been and remain central to the identity conflicts of the South. He charts examples of such rhetoric at work in southern universities from Reconstruction to the present day.
Tracing the long life and legacy of Old South words and symbols at southern universities, this book provides close and nuanced analysis of the rhetorical conflicts that have resulted at places like the University of Mississippi and the University of Missouri. Some conflicts erupted during the civil rights movement, when the first African American students pushed their way into all-white southern universities and colleges, and others are brewing now, as African Americans (and their progressive white peers) begin to cement genuine agency and voice in these communities. Tensions have been, and remain, high. Remnants of the old majority continue to recruit modern adherents. The white majority may be in decline by many measures, but it is also powerful and resilient, still standing guard in defense of Old South traditions.
Ultimately, Monroe offers hope and optimism, contending that if words and symbols can be used to damage and divide, then words and symbols can also be used to heal and unify. Racist rhetoric can be replaced by antiracist rhetoric. The old South can become new. While resisting naIve or facile arguments, Heritage and Hate ultimately finds the promise of progress within the tremendous power of language.
About the Author
Stephen M. Monroe is chair and assistant professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.
Reviews
The 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, 1830-1998
Book Information
ISBN 9780817320935
Author Stephen M. Monroe
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint The University of Alabama Press
Publisher The University of Alabama Press
Weight(grams) 575g
