Bible Belt Blues

Bible Belt Blues

Collected Essays

By Hal Crowther
Paperback $19.95

$19.95

Publication Date: 11th November 2025

Like most progressive Southerners, Hal Crowther is decidedly angry about current social and political events, but few writers are more able than he to articulate the problems, the issues, and even the... Read More
Like most progressive Southerners, Hal Crowther is decidedly angry about current social and political events, but few writers are more able than he to articulate the problems, the issues, and even the... Read More
Description

Like most progressive Southerners, Hal Crowther is decidedly angry about current social and political events, but few writers are more able than he to articulate the problems, the issues, and even the bitter humor of our present situation.

Hal Crowther is a writer who has made a long and illustrious career with sharp political and social commentary in the pages of national and regional outlets, from Time to the Atlanta Constitution to the Oxford American. In this collection, Crowther turns his attention once again to the Bible Belt, the American South, where he finds plenty of fodder for the blues: the descent from George Washington to Donald Trump, the difficulty of finding civil political discourse in a world where folks spew vitriol from behind their keyboards, Klan members marching down the street in Crowther’s hometown, the infantilization of culture (starring Mark Zuckerberg), the continued intertwining of religion and governance, and more.

Details
  • Price: $19.95
  • Pages: 200
  • Carton Quantity: 3
  • Publisher: Blair
  • Imprint: Blair
  • Publication Date: 11th November 2025
  • Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
  • ISBN: 9781958888667
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays
    LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays
    POLITICAL SCIENCE / Commentary & Opinion
Author Bio
Hal Crowther is an award-winning critic and essayist, a journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Granta, and Narrative magazines, among many others, and in the Oxford American, where his column “Dealer’s Choice” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His columns and reviews have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Spectator, and many independent weeklies and journals. A recipient of the Baltimore Sun’s Mencken Award for Writing, he is the author of four essay collections and An Infuriating American: The Incendiary Arts of H.L. Mencken. His most recent collection was Freedom Fighters and Hellraisers (Blair, 2018). For his third collection of essays, Gather at the River, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. He lives in Hillsborough, NC, with his wife, novelist Lee Smith.
Table of Contents

I. Old Times There Are Not Forgotten

Facing The Founder: On a Day of Shame

A Confederacy of Dunces? Once Again, Dixie Wants Out

Bad News From Home: The White Knights Ride Again

A Whiter Shade of Pale?

Blueprint For Sorrow:  The Singular Career of W. Sidney Pittman, Architect


II. Stations of the Cross

Bible Belt Blues

Godforsaken:  Of Death and Daffodils

Christian Soldiers


III. Politics: Ballets, Bullets, Bedrooms

Sex and the Southern Politician

And Who Will Lead Us?:  The problem with presidents

Goddess of Greed:  Ayn Rand is the Right’s Weirdest Idol of All

Chaos Theory: When Madness Gains Momentum

From the Madhouse to the White House

Slaughterhouse America Remember the Alamo?


IV. Shadows Fall

Going Viral:  Fighting For Oxygen in Trump’s America

Darkness at Dawn: The Campus in Crisis

“The Gates of Hell”---Swinging Wide?

Dark Clouds Gathering: Homegrown Fascists Show Their Teeth


V. It’s Twilight Time

Dante on Broadway

The Twilight of Truth?

Apocalypse When? Is Reality Melting With the Ice Caps?


VI. Reflections and Meditations

Otherwise Occupied: What Price Revolution?

The Forever Queen:  Good-bye to All That

Out of Date: The Joys of Obsolescence

Like most progressive Southerners, Hal Crowther is decidedly angry about current social and political events, but few writers are more able than he to articulate the problems, the issues, and even the bitter humor of our present situation.

Hal Crowther is a writer who has made a long and illustrious career with sharp political and social commentary in the pages of national and regional outlets, from Time to the Atlanta Constitution to the Oxford American. In this collection, Crowther turns his attention once again to the Bible Belt, the American South, where he finds plenty of fodder for the blues: the descent from George Washington to Donald Trump, the difficulty of finding civil political discourse in a world where folks spew vitriol from behind their keyboards, Klan members marching down the street in Crowther’s hometown, the infantilization of culture (starring Mark Zuckerberg), the continued intertwining of religion and governance, and more.

  • Price: $19.95
  • Pages: 200
  • Carton Quantity: 3
  • Publisher: Blair
  • Imprint: Blair
  • Publication Date: 11th November 2025
  • Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
  • ISBN: 9781958888667
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays
    LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays
    POLITICAL SCIENCE / Commentary & Opinion
Hal Crowther is an award-winning critic and essayist, a journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Granta, and Narrative magazines, among many others, and in the Oxford American, where his column “Dealer’s Choice” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His columns and reviews have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Spectator, and many independent weeklies and journals. A recipient of the Baltimore Sun’s Mencken Award for Writing, he is the author of four essay collections and An Infuriating American: The Incendiary Arts of H.L. Mencken. His most recent collection was Freedom Fighters and Hellraisers (Blair, 2018). For his third collection of essays, Gather at the River, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. He lives in Hillsborough, NC, with his wife, novelist Lee Smith.

I. Old Times There Are Not Forgotten

Facing The Founder: On a Day of Shame

A Confederacy of Dunces? Once Again, Dixie Wants Out

Bad News From Home: The White Knights Ride Again

A Whiter Shade of Pale?

Blueprint For Sorrow:  The Singular Career of W. Sidney Pittman, Architect


II. Stations of the Cross

Bible Belt Blues

Godforsaken:  Of Death and Daffodils

Christian Soldiers


III. Politics: Ballets, Bullets, Bedrooms

Sex and the Southern Politician

And Who Will Lead Us?:  The problem with presidents

Goddess of Greed:  Ayn Rand is the Right’s Weirdest Idol of All

Chaos Theory: When Madness Gains Momentum

From the Madhouse to the White House

Slaughterhouse America Remember the Alamo?


IV. Shadows Fall

Going Viral:  Fighting For Oxygen in Trump’s America

Darkness at Dawn: The Campus in Crisis

“The Gates of Hell”---Swinging Wide?

Dark Clouds Gathering: Homegrown Fascists Show Their Teeth


V. It’s Twilight Time

Dante on Broadway

The Twilight of Truth?

Apocalypse When? Is Reality Melting With the Ice Caps?


VI. Reflections and Meditations

Otherwise Occupied: What Price Revolution?

The Forever Queen:  Good-bye to All That

Out of Date: The Joys of Obsolescence