God Save the South: True American History With A Side of Southern Humor

by Steve Gibson

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Isaiah Rios]

3 stars because I picked it up looking for a Southern perspective on the Civil War, and I got exactly what I wanted. This is not the most thorough review but here are some quick thoughts.

There certainly are things that are excluded from Northern textbooks that ought not to be. We have a tendency to pick and choose the history we want to hear. However, Gipson seems to make the same mistake he accuses the North of making.
He knows his history and I certainly learned a good deal m, but he treats the role slavery played in this conflict rather flippantly. Yes, states rights were important to the South but what was the primary state right they fought to preserve?
This quote from the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stevens, (which he included in the book) answers this long fought over question rather succinctly:
“Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.”
Overall, a read I would recommend as supplemental to other readings on the “Slaveholders Rebellion” as Frederick Douglas called the Civil War.

[Jennifer Wolfe]

I met the Author and saw his play, Grandaddy's Watch and was entertained. The book has the same spunk but he placed entirely too many political views of his own in his writing. He could definitely have written this book without the politics. Looking at the year written is clear that the current political climate was not part of his views, but all the same that was the reason for 3 stars.

[Laura]

This book really gives one a new perspective on commonplace histories.

[Kari McDowell]

While the historical claims are rather dubious, the book is written in an engaging style.