Hospitality as a cultural trait has been associated with the South for well over two centuries, but the origins of this association and the reasons for its perseverance of ten seem unclear. Anthony Szczesiul looks at how and why we have taken something so particular as the social habit of hospitality-which is exercised among diverse individuals and is widely varied in its particular practices-and so generalized it as to make it a cultural trait of an entire region of the country.

Historians have offered a variety of explanations of the origins and cultural practices of hospitality in the antebellum South. Economic historians have at times portrayed southern hospitality as evidence of conspicuous consumption and competition among wealthy planters, while cultural historians have treated it peripherally as a symptomatic expression of the southern code of honor. Although historians have offered different theories, they generally agree that the mythic dimensions of southern hospitality eventually outstripped its actual practices. Szczesiul examines why we have chosen to remember and valorize this particular aspect of the South, and he raises fundamental ethical questions that underlie both the concept of hospitality and the cultural work of American memory, particularly in light of the region's historical legacy of slavery and segregation.

About the Author
Anthony Szczesiul is an associate professor and chair of English at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Jon Smith is an associate professor of English at Simon Fraser University. He is coeditor of Look Away! The U.S. South in New World Studies and is coeditor with Riche Richardson of The New Southern Studies series.

Rich Richardson is an associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis.


Book Information
ISBN 9780820355511
Author Anthony Szczesiul
Format Paperback
Page Count 310
Imprint University of Georgia Press
Publisher University of Georgia Press