$30.00
ISBN: 9781101980286
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Press - May 14th, 2019
Tony Horwitz, in his now final book, Spying on the South, follows the same routes Frederick Law Olmsted took in touring the U.S. South in the 1850s, using as often as he can the same modes of transportation, including floating on a coal barge through West Virginia near the sojourn's outset and on mule-back into the south Texas desert heat, at its end. Both Olmsted, young and idealistic, on assignment for the still-fledgling New York Times, and Horwitz, researching again the same southern landscape where he has previously witnessed and reported on the Confederacy's lingering political pall, live to see their words come to light, Olmsted's culminated in the U.S. Civil War, Horwitz's in rampant unrest and antipathy, which has seared into the support for and election of Donald Trump as president, making Spying on the South an imperative read for all, but especially for anyone who fears history's repeating. ~ Reviewed by Ray Marsocci