This month The Bookies will meet to discus s the late author\, Tony Horwit'z new book Spying On The South: An Odyssey Across The American Divide. \;Here is the publisher's description of the book:
\nIn the 1850s\, the young Frederick Law Olmsted was adrif t\, a restless farmer and dreamer in search of a mission. He found it duri ng an extraordinary journey\, as an undercover correspondent in the South for the up-and-coming \;New York Times.
\nFor the Connecticut Ya nkee\, pen name "Yeoman\," the South was alien\, often hostile territory. Yet Olmsted traveled for 14 months\, by horseback\, steamboat\, and stagec oach\, seeking dialogue and common ground. His vivid dispatches about the lives and beliefs of Southerners were revelatory for readers of his day\, and Yeoman's remarkable trek also reshaped the American landscape\, as Olm sted sought to reform his own society by creating democratic spaces for th e uplift of all. The result: Central Park and Olmsted's career as America' s first and foremost landscape architect.
\nTony Horwitz rediscovers Yeoman Olmsted amidst the discord and polarization of our own time. Is Am erica still one country? In search of answers\, and his own adventures\, H orwitz follows Olmsted's tracks and often his mode of transport (including muleback): through Appalachia\, down the Mississippi River\, into bayou L ouisiana\, and across Texas to the contested Mexican borderland. Venturing far off beaten paths\, Horwitz uncovers bracing vestiges and strange new mutations of the Cotton Kingdom. Horwitz's intrepid and often hilarious jo urney through an outsized American landscape is a masterpiece in the tradi tion of \;Great Plains\, \;Bad Land\, and the author's own classic \, \;Confederates in the Attic.
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