Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War

by Michael Graham

Forget the calzone and cannoli; the only real difference between Brooklyn, New York, and Birmingham, Alabama, is that you can't get a gun rack into a Trans Am. Trailer parks, pickup trucks, Hee Haw, grits...just the mention of any one of these can elicit a smirk north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But according to Michael Graham, the South is getting the last laugh because redneckery has spread like kudzu from Bangor to Baja. Don't believe it? How else do you explain the incredible popularity of NASCAR and pro wrestling? Now Michael Graham-writer, comedian, radio talk show host, and former GOP flack-fearlessly takes on big government, the public school system, Enron, free speech, illiteracy, multiculturalism, and racism. He proves that the ideas Northern liberals once marched south to protest make up the agenda they promote today. Provocative, honest, and hilarious, Graham takes no prisoners-reminding us that for every slack-jawed yokel swearing he just saw Elvis, there's a left-wing Yankee trying to re-segregate America's schools or watching the chitlin' eating contest on his favorite reality TV show.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2002

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a humorous, lighthearted expose of how the South has culturally and politically conquered the rest of America. The humor is obvious and repetitive so it mostly, though not entirely, fails on that account. It's not particularly convincing when it comes to its main premise either: just an endless amount of anecdotes - some no doubt genuine, others clearly made up/embellished for effect - but no actual evidence. Now, to be fair, given the tone of the book, I'm not sure I had any right to expect it. But that would also render the book essentially meaningless.

[Vickie Woodard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be funny if it wasn't so true.
I grew up 3 miles from Cumberland Gap and actually knew teenagers who thought it was funny to take turns shooting each other with BB guns. My step-dad's mom attended a snake handlin' church in Jellico TN. I belonged to a church FULL of Bible Thumpers.
So much of this book resonates with the past I chose to leave behind.
I laughed through the entire book.
And I find it worse than sad that the mistakes of the Old South are being repeated nationwide.

[Svetlin Krastev]

Exceptional insight into America. Extremely educational and very funny. It let the reader develop it knowledge of the biases that still exist in America.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who grew up a northerner but has now lived the last 5+ years in the south (sort of in SE Missouri) I was hoping this would be a good read. While it did have some funny and insightful points it wasn't the "great" or "hilarious" book other reviewers claimed. Most of it was superficial and many points were loosely tied together to support the authors opinion-that the southern attitude and way of life has been adopted by the rest of the country. Overall it was a decent read with some parts that will make you chuckle and some ah ha moments. I wouldn't pay full price for it but if you get it on sale or better yet at the library it's a decent quick read.

[William Monaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book by Michael Graham, although not as good as That's No Angry Mob. I wanted to give this 3.5 stars, so I rounded up. Overall a funny expose on how northern liberalism has adopted the worst of Southern culture. As someone from northern New Hampshire whose in-laws live near Loudon, I can say with first-hand experience that almost all of New Hampshire has joined the NASCAR Redneck Nation.

Graham (inadvertently and unknowingly) makes the case (correctly, I believe), that libertarianism is the last bastion of erudition and reason in this country.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author grew up in South Carolina, hated the Bubba-ness of it all and fled to the North. But what did he find up there? A nation whose favorite sport is NASCAR, who watches reality shows on TV where people eat pig rectums, who is overly race-conscious. Hmmm, said he, sounds way too much like where ah cum frum.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty entertaining although it is oversimplified, probably to try to make it funnier. As a transplanted Southerner, I found LOTS of things to chuckle over. Something entertaining to read if you are not expecting a sociological treatise about the South.

[Brent · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I picked this book or up why I wasted the time finishing it. Maybe I thought he'd conclude in a Steven Colbert, haha, this is all satire and humor, but no. He seems to be a genuine bigot, and proud of it.

[Hugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good laugh, at least for a yank like myself

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 1 out of 5]

A 'funny' book by a comedian with a political outlook somewhere to the right of Rush Limbaugh.

[Samantha Colson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get in to this book.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

humorous look at the South