Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers: A Gallery of Memorable Southerners

by Hal Crowther

"I don't have any children, so I've decided to claim all the future freedom-fighters and hell-raisers as my kin," wrote journalist Molly Ivins. Ivins is one of the biggest hell-raisers profiled in this collection of essays by Hal Crowther, but there is plenty hell-raising and freedom-fighting to go around. Crowther is a writer whose own career is marked by sharp political and social commentary in the pages of national and regional outlets, from Time to the Atlanta Constitution to The Oxford American. In this collection, he turns his attention to best and the brightest of the recently departed generation in the South. These essays commemorate the passing of iconic Southern figures such as John Hope Franklin, Doc Watson, Judy Bonds, and James Dickey. Crowther has known most of the folks he profiles and has lived in their particular landscape for decades; he has some stories to tell, and he does so with a particular appreciation for his subjects' accomplishments, their surroundings, and even, in the case of politicos Jesse Helms and George Wallace, their particular brand of notoriousness. Novelist and commentator Silas House, author of Southernmost and A Parchment of Leaves, introduces the collection.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Essays

200 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2018

About the author

Hal Crowthers current collection of essays, Gather at the River, was 2006 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. For his first collection, Unarmed But Dangerous, he was cited by Kirkpatrick Sale as the best essayist working in journalism today. Cathedrals of Kudzu, published in 2000, has been one of the New Souths most honored and critically acclaimed works of non-fiction. It received the Lillian Smith Book Award from the Southern Regional Council, the 1999-2001 Fellowship Prize for Nonfiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the 2001 Book of the Year Award for essays from Foreword Magazine. The Southern Book Critics Circle also chose Cathedrals as a finalist for the Southern Book Award in Nonfiction. "

Reviews

[Mgb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographical vignettes of southerners who may inspire you....I bet you can’t read it without resorting to google at some point.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is buffeted by different Southerners, some good, some not-so-good. I felt it was kind of slow in the beginning, even though the chapters are really quite short (ten pages or less per person), and it was because i had never heard of these people. But the more I read, the more I realized that the author chose most of the people he did BECAUSE they, for the most part, went well know and should have been. Some of the final ones were my faves, and I cried when he finished the book off with Doc Watson, who i loved. I'm really glad I read this book. It's charged throughout with the dirtiness of politics, racial injustices, and musical genius in the least likely places. He gives the reader just a taste of each person highlighted; the perfect amuse-bouche, leaving one both satisfied and craving more simultaneously.

[Susanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was glad to have read this book as I learned a little more about famous folks from my now adopted home. While I appreciate Crowther’s conversational style, I do wish he had chosen the obituary format so I could have paid more respect to these people by learning even more. This cross between eulogy and obituary comes across more as “famous people I have known.” To be honest, one of the biggest losses in the loss of newspapers is the loss of the obituary section. History is made by a variety of people and I always found the obituary pages a great place to learn previously unknown history.

[Jonathan Dinkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of Southerners whose impact in history had become Enlightened with the actions of their predecessors as ones whose impact was profited for official beliefs according to government, the people, religion, credibility, and sanctity in world we live.

[Josè · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gallery of memorable southerners sounds like critique descriptions of people who overcame hardship that altered many barriers to their lives in administration fields with cognitive fails that caused those colleagues to render the term "freedom fighter".

[Joshua Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really neat look at the lives of some famous and some unknown southern people. Each chapter is an essay highlighting one of these people and their impact.
Really enjoyed this.

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice mixture of renowned Southern icons and others who should be more famous.

[Polly]

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