A New History of Mississippi

by Dennis J. Mitchell

Creating the first comprehensive narrative of Mississippi since the bicentennial history was published in 1976, Dennis J. Mitchell recounts the vibrant and turbulent history of a Deep South state. The author has condensed the massive scholarship produced since that time into an appealing narrative, which incorporates people missing from many previous histories including American Indians, women, African Americans, and a diversity of other minority groups. This is the story of a place and its people, history makers and ordinary citizens alike. Mississippi's rich flora and fauna are also central to the story, which follows both natural and man-made destruction and the major efforts to restore and defend rare untouched areas. Hernando De Soto, Sieur d’Iberville, Ferdinand Claiborne, Thomas Hinds, Aaron Burr, Greenwood LeFlore, Joseph Davis, Nathan Bedford Forrest, James D. Lynch, James K. Vardaman, Mary Grace Quackenbos, Ida B. Wells, William Alexander Percy, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, John Grisham, Jack Reed, William F. Winter, Jim Barksdale, Richard Howorth, Christopher Epps, and too many more to list―this book covers a vast and rich legacy. From the rise and fall of American Indian culture to the advent of Mississippi’s world-renowned literary, artistic, and scientific contributions, Mitchell vividly brings to life the individuals and institutions that have created a fascinating and diverse state.

Genres: History

608 pages, Hardcover

First published May 27, 2014

About the author

Dennis J. Mitchell was born in 1947. He lives in Lauderdale, Mississippi.

From 1977 to 1980, Mitchell was assistant director of the Mississippi Humanities Council and taught at Hinds Junior College. In 1980, he began teaching at Jackson State University where he remained for almost two decades; he was acting history department chair in 1997 to 1999.

Today Mitchell is professor and head of the division of Arts and Science at Mississippi State University’s Meridian campus. He served as Interim Dean at MSU-Meridian from 2001-2002 and 2011.

Reviews

[samuel bragg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great one stop resource for the history of Mississippi. Could do a better job of telling the story of all Mississippians but does a decent overall job.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid narrative history of Mississippi, a largely greatest-hits survey that may leave some readers wanting more. The book succeeds in establishing a narrative coherence to the state's story, centralizing themes of race, class, space, and modernization, to portray Mississippi moving sometimes willingly, mostly unwillingly away from its own unique brand of exceptionalism and toward "Americanization." The book relies heavily on telling the state's story through a limited cast of characters - mostly famous political, civic, and cultural names. This choice is understandable, and it works to an extent, but by the end gives the book a feeling of being a skin-deep political survey rather than the bone-level analysis of society and place it seems to aspire to be. The author tantalizes with illuminating short excursions into matters such as the mid-century transformation of the economy, the environmental legacy of the timber extraction and widespread pesticide use , the state's contributions to the rise of rock and roll music, even Hurricane Katrina. Discussion of these issues - and more that fall outside of the rightfully dominant subjects of slavery, Jim Crow, and the civil rights revolution - seems insufficient. Also, with the exception of its discussion of Meridian and (maybe) Jackson, urbanization and suburbanization are largely absent as themes. Nonetheless, the book does well to provide readers a deep rendering of the leading personalities of Mississippi history. And, the author doesn't pull any punches when it comes to passing judgement on the deserving.

[Ellen Morris Prewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for a while thinking, there's nothing new about this history of Mississippi. It struck me as the same, traditional "white male leader" view of history, with a few paragraphs thrown in to acknowledge events and attitudes that had long been covered up in Mississippi's past. Then, as if finding its feet, it got real. I wound up learning much that I didn't know, even during the civil rights era, where I've done a great deal of reading. Mississippi's history is anything but easy, and my reading shuddered to a stop more than once. But it was worth it.

[Vanjr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both of my parents are from Mississippi, one of my in-laws is. I did kindergarten and my undergrad degree in Miss, but this book showed and told me more about this state than I imagined. This narrative based history showed a depth and raw degree of racism that is almost unbelievable. The time period from the civil war to the mid 1970s was particularly eye opening. The book is heavy on the prose, and it is easy to lose sight of who is under discussion. It it also lite on illustrations. It ends on a marginally up beat note.
Highly recommend.

[Darryl Breland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the best history book ever written about Mississippi