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Spying on the South: Travels with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land

Tony Horwitz

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 2,647 ratings · 451 reviews

Beloved best-selling author Tony Horwitz retraces Frederick Law Olmsted's epic journey across the American South in the 1850s, as he too searches for common ground in a dangerously riven nation.

On the eve of the Civil War, an up-and-coming newspaper, the New York Times, sent a young travel writer to explore the South, which was alien territory to the Connecticut Yankee cor Beloved best-selling author Tony Horwitz retraces Frederick Law Olmsted's epic journey across the American South in the 1850s, as he too searches for common ground in a dangerously riven nation.

On the eve of the Civil War, an up-and-coming newspaper, the New York Times, sent a young travel writer to explore the South, which was alien territory to the Connecticut Yankee correspondent and to his Northern readers. Identified in the paper as "Yeoman," to protect his identity, the writer roamed eleven states and six thousand miles, jolting the nation with his dispatches about slavery and the extremism of its defenders.

This extraordinary journey would also re-shape the nation's landscape, driving "Yeoman"--real name Frederick Law Olmsted--to embark on his career as America's first and foremost architect of urban parks and other public spaces.

Over a century and half later, there are echoes of the pre-Civil War in the angry ferment and fracturing of our own time. Is America still one country? Tony Horwitz, like Olmsted a Yankee and roving scribe, sets forth to find out by retracing Yeoman's journey through the South. Following his route and whenever possible his mode of transport--rail, riverboats, in the saddle--Horwitz travels Appalachia, down the Ohio and Mississippi, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and across Texas to the Rio Grande. Venturing, as Olmsted did, far off the beaten paths, Horwitz discovers colorful traces of an old weird America, shocking vestiges of the Cotton Kingdom, and strange new mutations that have sprung from its roots.

The result is a masterpiece in the tradition of Great Plains, Bad Land, and the author's own classic, Confederates in the Attic. Spying on the South is an intrepid, wise, and frequently hilarious expedition through an outsized landscape and its equally outsized state of mind. It is also a probing and poignant study of the young Olmsted, whose own life, and thinking about landscape and society, would be forever altered by his Southern odyssey. ...more

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Hardcover, 476 pages

Published May 14th 2019 by Penguin Press

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Aug 23, 2019 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 5000-2019, lor-2019

Reading this last book by Horowitz was bittersweet, and since he narrated his own book it was even more special. Following a journey by Frederick Olmstead that he had undertaken between 1852 through 1857 through our southern states, Tony sets out to duplicate this journey as much as was possible. Olmstead took this journey to investigate the slave economy, dispatches he sent back to the Times.

So in-between quotes from Olmstead on his discoveries, we see how much of how little things have changed Reading this last book by Horowitz was bittersweet, and since he narrated his own book it was even more special. Following a journey by Frederick Olmstead that he had undertaken between 1852 through 1857 through our southern states, Tony sets out to duplicate this journey as much as was possible. Olmstead took this journey to investigate the slave economy, dispatches he sent back to the Times.

So in-between quotes from Olmstead on his discoveries, we see how much of how little things have changed in the intervening years. As you can imagine much had changed, buildings gone or renovated, previous occupations no longer viable, but Tony dies a great job following his journey as he could. Traveling on the Ohio River by barge, visiting towns, Olmstead had visited, plantations or at least the land where they once stood, San Antonio and the Alamo, Arcadia Southern Louisiana, comparing Olmsteads reflections with his own.

It was the people he talked too, he has the knack of asking the right questions to elicit honest answers, that I most enjoyed. Needless to say in this country if our he ran into some real characters. A man who talked him into going out to the river/swamp at night to try to shoot bars with a crossbow. Hard can reach up to six feet and have huge, sharp teeth and an impaling protuberance on their face. The food he described and the effects of eating such was also humorous. There was much humor here, but none so both funny and frightening as the mule trip through the hill country in Texas that he took on mule with an irascible handler named Buck. Parts just had me giggling.

I also appreciated that he, for the most part, kept his personal opinions out of his discoveries, trusting that the reader was able to form their own opinions. That we are a nation divided by thoughts, beliefs, and the wanted role of our government, a nation of differing opinions is without doubt. After reading this I am more convinced of this than ever. A truly satisfying, informative and entertaining read.

ARC from Edelweiss. ...more

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May 22, 2019 H. P. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I love Tony Horwitz’s nonfiction. He has a simple formula: he picks some interesting, underappreciated bit of history, then explores the modern day geography. The result is a mix of travelogue and history as Horwitz interweaves his own adventures with the history. His best known work is Confederates in the Attic, and I was beyond overjoyed when I saw that he was returning to the South.

Spying on the South retraces the steps of Frederick Olmstead on a pre-Civil War trip through the South. (It wasn I love Tony Horwitz’s nonfiction. He has a simple formula: he picks some interesting, underappreciated bit of history, then explores the modern day geography. The result is a mix of travelogue and history as Horwitz interweaves his own adventures with the history. His best known work is Confederates in the Attic, and I was beyond overjoyed when I saw that he was returning to the South.

Spying on the South retraces the steps of Frederick Olmstead on a pre-Civil War trip through the South. (It wasn’t my focus or his, but Horwitz’s portrait of a young Olmstead, well before his days as a famed landscape artists, is delightful.) Horwitz alternates historical tidbits with his own misadventures. I said travelogue, but that undersells it. How many travelogues include one leg by coal barge and another by mule? The real joy of these sections are the people Horwitz meets along the way. He treats them with dignity and humanity, and their disparate stories will do far more to flesh out hillbillies and white working class Americans for the person who entry to the field was Hillbilly Elegy than a work like, say, Appalachian Reckoning.

I should make clear, though, that this is not a work that primarily focuses on hillbillies. Horwitz starts in West Virginia, but he also spends time in Kentucky, Tennessee, along the Mississippi, in Louisiana, Texas, and on the Texas-Mexico border. I was disappointed to learn that Horwitz only covers the “there” (not the “back again”) of Olmstead’s second trip. He leaves out, then, stops in Chattanooga, Asheville, and Abingdon that would have been of particular interest to me. And I loved the book, but the West Virginia chapter makes me really wish Horwitz had written a book on Appalachia and the Rust Belt instead.

Olmstead made his journeys through the South a mere decade before the Civil War. It wasn’t a pleasure trip: he sent regular dispatches back to New York for newspaper publication, and he collected and edited those dispatches into a three-volume book (since Horwitz skips the return journey with its long leg through Appalachia, I’m going to pick up the third volume, A Journey in the Back Country). Olmstead intended to foster dialogue in a country sharply divided; instead he came to see the South as intransigent and became radicalized (he would later moderate and arguably betray his principles by designed segregated spaces in the South).

As the subtitle suggests, Horwitz also takes an odyssey across the American divide. His experience writing Confederates in the Attic notwithstanding, Horwitz is open about how little he knows about the territory he covers, especially Texas. The people he meets are very much foreign to him—culturally, politically, and economically.

Spying on the South seems well-timed, and it is, but it isn’t directly a response to Trump. Horwitz sets off on his journey in West Virginia before the 2016 primaries even started. As the narrative and timeline progress, Trump begins to intrude, but Horwitz does an admirable job not using him as a crutch.

This is Horwitz’s most political and most pessimistic book, but it still has everything that makes his other books so special. The coal barge highlights “a good living for country boys” where they “can still work from the neck down.” A sojourn at a weekend devoted to mudding and Horwitz’s misadventures on a mule are enormously entertaining. Horwitz humanizes the people of the Red States he crosses throughout. Among other things, Horwitz’s narrative highlights the cultural diversity of the Red States. West Virginia is very different than Cajun Louisiana is very different than rural east Texas is very different from the Texas-Mexico border. The focus is rural, with cities like Nashville and Houston getting short shrift. The economic contrast between the rural Appalachia and South and the cities of Texas is stark.

Horwitz works hard to see the best in people, but the South has an ugly history with race, in a place where “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Horwitz goes on plantation tours that somehow manage to avoid any mention of slavery in Mississippi and is subjected to racial slurs by Texans who insist there is a camp of Muslim insurgents in their rural county (Horwitz, who worked extensively in the Middle East as a journalist, offers to go check it out). His story of a slaveholder who attempted to join in political reform after the Civil War ends in the slaughter of dozens of African-Americans.

Spying on the South may not be Horwitz’s most enjoyable book, but it is his most relevant to what I am doing here. It is the sort of book that the working class-curious neophyte ought to read, and early. Even if you aren’t so culturally conscious, you are sure to learn something from the history side. ...more

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May 31, 2019 Leslie Ray rated it liked it

Tony Horowitz follows the path of Frederick Olmsted, who was a writer for the then, New York Daily Times, who wrote about his trips to the South, in the 1850's. Olmsted made 2 trips, of which Horowitz chose to follow the second journey that took place in 1853-4. This 2nd trip from Maryland through West Virginia, on the Mississippi River through Louisiana and finally to Texas, was the one that this book follows as the author manages to seek out, in some cases, the most idiosyncratic and eccentric ...more

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Apr 29, 2019 Bruce Katz rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: race-in-america, american-history

I could have gone to a 4 but really, 3 means 'I liked it,' so I'll leave it like that. Horwitz is a fine companion as he follows in the pre-civil war footsteps of Frederick Law Olmstead through the South. Olmstead was archly anti-slavery. He traveled the south as a correspondent for what was then the New York Daily Times, trying to understand the people who defended slavery and seemed to live in such a different world than his. (Later, of course, he became the country's foremost landscape archit I could have gone to a 4 but really, 3 means 'I liked it,' so I'll leave it like that. Horwitz is a fine companion as he follows in the pre-civil war footsteps of Frederick Law Olmstead through the South. Olmstead was archly anti-slavery. He traveled the south as a correspondent for what was then the New York Daily Times, trying to understand the people who defended slavery and seemed to live in such a different world than his. (Later, of course, he became the country's foremost landscape architect -- though he hated the term -- and became world-renowned as the creator of New York City's Central Park.) Horwitz has a similar objective as he makes his way through modern polarized America, trying to explore what has changed since Olmstead's days , what echoes, and what truly remains.

I enjoyed the book, as I have others Horwitz has written, but I felt him less than successful in shedding any light on the southern mind, new or old. Unsurprisingly, he encountered some truly interesting (another reader might prefer 'audacious,' 'idiosyncratic,' or 'odd,' or just plain 'truly f-ed up') characters. Several really stand out, but I think my favorite are the people he met at a monster truck mud course. That, I'm certain, will be an experience Horwitz will long remember (along with the ill-fated mule riding adventure). But the parallel treks never quite coalesce into a revealing depiction of southern culture, at least not for me. The book struck me as a bit too peripatetic. Nor was the integration of his own experiences with those of Olmstead as seamless and revealing as I would have hoped. I came away with a strong feeling that he learned a lot more in his travels than he was able to express. He recently had an article in the Times with the headline, "Can Bar-Stool Democracy Save America?" I hope to see more such pieces.

As I said, though, Horwitz is a fun guide, self-deprecating, smart, and adventurous. His adventures were fun to read. And I have to admit, he's a lot braver than I am.

Addendum: Sadly, Tony Horwitz passed away on May 27. He will be missed. ...more

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Jul 05, 2019 Christine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: race-issues, reporting, history-america, travel, politics

America lost something great when Tony Horowitz died in May 2019. When you read this book, you are made painfully aware of that fact. Horowitz possessed not only ability to get people to talk to and with him, but also to capture them on the page. Reading this book, you realize how rare and powerful that skill is.

Spying on the South is on one level a recreation of Frederick Olmstead’s journey to report on the South prior to the Civil War. Much of it was done during the 2016 election, and, theref America lost something great when Tony Horowitz died in May 2019. When you read this book, you are made painfully aware of that fact. Horowitz possessed not only ability to get people to talk to and with him, but also to capture them on the page. Reading this book, you realize how rare and powerful that skill is.

Spying on the South is on one level a recreation of Frederick Olmstead’s journey to report on the South prior to the Civil War. Much of it was done during the 2016 election, and, therefore, the book also shows the divided country.

His journey starts on Amtrak’s Capitol limited which follows the old B&O route. The reader is quickly treated to a wonderful conversation with Donald Handy, a salesman who not only is a good salesman but also compares writing to his work. In West Virginia, Horowitz examines the coal industry, and how coal, or perhaps the memory of coal, still runs the state. He includes as well the men who run the ships who move the coal. What Horowitz does in the book is capture what people say and think, but with a minimum of judgement. This is perfectly done in the section about coal where Horowitz represents the declining coal industry as well as the desperation of those who used to work in.

The great thing about Horowitz is that he is able to change the stereotype that many people have of the South (and of the North because he represents the North). He shows us a West Virginian who points out that coal is a legacy of exploitation and is a class issue. He is upset and worried that his state is ruled by coal, that in some ways they have given up their independence. There are Texans who point out the those at the Alamo were the illegal immigrants of their day and that it is something we should remember.

His even-handed approach is so prevalent that when the word bigoted is used to describe someone’s rhetoric, it stands out. It makes the description more powerful because it is used so sparingly.

One of the most interesting and telling aspects of Horowitz’s trip is when he boards the American Queen, a tourist cruise boat that goes down the Mississippi river. The cruise includes day trips to plantations and most strangely, disturbingly to Angola Prison. The reflection of how many, not all but many, of the stops gloss over slavery as well as the sense of a caste system on the boat take up much of this section and raise some very good points about how we cover history.

This conflict about reality and history also includes forgotten massacres that are remembered but not really, including people in Texas who were actually pro-Union and killed for it during the Civil War.

When you reach the end of this book, you are left wishing Horowitz was still alive to write more because while he records the bad, he also records the good and that gives us hope.

...more

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Feb 15, 2020 Lorna rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-south, non-fiction, travel, history, mexico, texas, new-york, slavery

This beautiful book, Spying on the South: Travel with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land by Tony Horowitz was a treasure to savor as the author followed the travels of Frederick Law Olmstead and his explorations in the deep South in the years prior to the Civil War. Sent as a correspondent for The New York Times, Olmsted sent dispatches back regarding the deep divisions in the country with the issue of slavery at its core. This experience would propel Olmsted later to become the nation's This beautiful book, Spying on the South: Travel with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land by Tony Horowitz was a treasure to savor as the author followed the travels of Frederick Law Olmstead and his explorations in the deep South in the years prior to the Civil War. Sent as a correspondent for The New York Times, Olmsted sent dispatches back regarding the deep divisions in the country with the issue of slavery at its core. This experience would propel Olmsted later to become the nation's first landscape architect as he designed public spaces and parks throughout the country, often inspired by the beautiful landscape and architecture in the South. Most notable is New York City's Central Park, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and the famous Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Horowitz, in exploring the divisions in our nation today, set out to retrace the epic journey of Olmsted following his route as closely as possible. Horowitz travelled through Appalachia, down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and through the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and across Texas to the Rio Grande, exploring all of the hidden places off the beaten path and meeting some memorable characters. In the skillful hands of Tony Horowitz, many of the deep differences in the political landscape were quite apparent. It ends, however, on a bittersweet note, as Tony Horowitz died shortly after its publication while on tour in Washington, D.C. promoting the book. He will be missed.

"Frederick Law Olmsted is celebrated today as a visionary architect of New York's Central Park, among many other spaces: the US Capitol grounds, college campuses, residential neighborhoods, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Olmsted helped create much of the urban and suburban landscape that Americans still inhabit.."

"But there were inescapable echoes of the 1850's: extreme polarization, racial strife, demonization of the other side, embrace of enflamed opinion over reasoned dialogue and debate."

"When the magnolia bloomed, its fragrance mixed with thee olive and banana 'to make a sweet, spicy scent that is so strong that you can barely stand it."

" Creole is the soul food of New Orleans."

"Olmsted may have turned away from the South and its inequities after the Civil War. But the central quest of his travels and writings endured in his landscape design." ...more

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May 30, 2019 Jessica rated it it was amazing

I had 12 pages to go in Spying on the South when my best friend texted me that Tony Horwitz had died.

"I'm so sorry. I know you loved him. I loved him too." I was going to lend her the pre-publication copy I'd gotten through goodreads. I'll still send it to her but she will have to give it back. It's marked up and underlined with stars and exclamation points in the margins. I circled places Olmstead had passed through where I'd lived before and places I want to go to some day. I'd scribbled in th ...more

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Apr 25, 2020 Jamie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, travel-united-states, travel

I had read two of Tony Horwitz’s previous books, Confederates in the Attic and Blue Latitudes, and enjoyed them both, and so was interested when I learned that he had published Spying on the South, which followed in the footsteps of Frederick Law Olmstead’s journeys through the American South in the years just before the Civil War. Olmstead is remembered today as a landscape architect, most famously for his work designing New York City’s Central Park, but he was also a journalist and farmer in h ...more

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Aug 20, 2019 thefourthvine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, travel-essays

This is a typical Tony Horwitz book (and his last; I was sad to learn that he died while on tour for this book). He travels! He chats with people! (He must have been the foremost chatter of our time.) He draws conclusions!

This one, since it is about both Fredrick Law Olmstead’s travels in the South right before the Civil War, and Horwitz’s own travels along the same route right before the election of Donald Trump, is, in places, really painful to read. Horwitz quotes extensively from Olmstead’s ...more

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Aug 07, 2019 Barbara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Spying on The South is a wonderful journey following the steps of Frederick Olmsted as he traveled in the South on the eve of the Civil War. Reporting for the New York Times he sought dialogue from slaveowners and slaves, hoping that through conversation secession could be averted. This quest to end slavery, as well as his appreciation for the natural beauty he encountered, had a great impact on his yet unknown career as a world famous landscape designer.

Tony Horwitz replicates Olmsted's trek th Spying on The South is a wonderful journey following the steps of Frederick Olmsted as he traveled in the South on the eve of the Civil War. Reporting for the New York Times he sought dialogue from slaveowners and slaves, hoping that through conversation secession could be averted. This quest to end slavery, as well as his appreciation for the natural beauty he encountered, had a great impact on his yet unknown career as a world famous landscape designer.

Tony Horwitz replicates Olmsted's trek through Appalachia, down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and into Louisiana and Texas. As Olmsted had, he interviews people from all walks of life with compassion and an open mind. I gained understanding and insights into why these people think so differently from me. Yet, it was sad to realize that the political and cultural divide is as great now as it was during Olmsted's travels.

Frederick Olmsted was a good example of the adage, We are a sum total of all our experiences." From his belief in freedom for all to his expansive landscape designs that allowed freedom of movement and a "venue to elevate and assimilate the masses and force into contact the rich and the powerful, the highbrow and low" his message resonates. His appreciation for the terrain he saw would also be seen in his later park designs. As the author meandered through The Ramble, a section of Central Park well-loved by Olmsted, elements of the Southern landscape were visible. "Its lush and aromatic density felt more like Louisiana or the Carolina Low Country than the mid-Atlantic, and the plantings included swamp magnolia, a tree he admired on his journey. The rustic benches and bridges were made of Alabama cedar." In other areas of the park lagoon-like water features and allees have the feel of the plantations he visited.

This is an amazing book that anyone who loves great writing, a humorous travelogue of the U.S., political parallels, or adventures of a famous architect would enjoy. I am saddened to know that the author died shortly after the publication of this book. I came to know him as a witty and intelligent friend. ...more

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Jun 07, 2019 Angus McKeogh rated it really liked it

Another really great read. Two in a row. Delves into the underlying psyche and current of the Southern culture. Similarities and differences between the present and the time of the Civil War. Demonstrates how some things, ideas, and ethics within the culture show very little progress from the attitudes that existed during the Civil War. Horwitz shadows Olmsted’s trek through the South in the 1850s. It’s expected how much has changed and it’s telling how much hasn’t.

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Jul 02, 2019 Kristy Miller rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, arc, history, giveaways, travel

I received a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for a fair review.

I first found Tony Horwitz a few years back, when my book club read Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. I quickly became a huge fan of Mr. Horwitz, and have collected/read several other books by him since then. I was devastated when Mr. Horwitz died suddenly on his tour for this book. This, and life in general, slowed my progress with this book, but I am happy to report that I h ...more

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May 02, 2019 Paul rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Olmsted on one side, 2016 on the other, and Horwitz in the middle. I’ve read four of his other works and this is a much more immediate view of history and the United States than the other books. It is view of many things: the legacy of the Alamo, the struggling coal industry, modern tourism, and a man who changed the way cities and recreation spaces are built in this country. But the narrative kept going back to the way history endures through many people’s eyes.

4.5 out of 5 stars

For my full rev ...more

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Feb 02, 2020 Hank Stuever rated it really liked it

I read the first part, set it aside, read some more, set it aside. Maybe I was savoring it, in a way, knowing it's the last we'll hear from Tony Horowitz, who died suddenly after "Spying on the South" was released. A true loss. (If you've never read "Confederates in the Attic," you MUST.)

I also think "Spying on the South" is just kind of a slow read; not especially revealing, given the heap of books and journalism we've seen in the past few years about the great American divide, the flyover terr ...more

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Jun 23, 2019 Brian rated it it was amazing

Such a fun, witty, entertaining, and informative book - but also a very bittersweet read with the author's recent, unexpected death. Mostly a travelogue, partly a biography of Frederick Olmsted (designer of Central Park) - it really didn't veer into politics as often as you might think from the title, and never comes across as snide or condescending. Sharing the author's political leanings, it was very enjoyable for me to read Horwitz's "reports" from the part of the world where I live, surround ...more

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Jun 12, 2020 Matt Bender rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Horowitz stayed true to Olmsted’s style of narrating the details. I enjoyed his use of Olmested’s writing as a reference point. The most enjoyable chapters were with his Australian friend as a travel companion who added much needed humor. The book is timely and like his last one provides perspectives on rural and political revanchism of red America. I could have done with less roaming the Texas ranges.

There were some new insights for me like the link between anti-evolution beliefs and racism, s ...more

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Dec 22, 2019 Carole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

In his last book before his untimely passing, Horwitz traces the routes Olmsted traveled in the 1850s as a reporter for a New York newspaper. He was probing the Southern slave culture with his ailing brother, and they engaged the local populace with curiosity and some astonishment. A hundred and sixty years later, Horwitz tries to follow the route as closely as possible, including some adventurous segments taken on a barge as well as on horseback. Horwitz has a remarkable ability to draw out peo ...more

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May 20, 2019 Gretchen Stokes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A truly human tour of the south, guided by a historical journey. Tony Horwitz applies his historically astute writing to a modern picture of various regions of the south. He crafts a whole cloth out of a hugely varied cast of characters, and somehow tells an engrossing and cohesive story.

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Jul 19, 2019 Rita Ciresi rated it it was amazing

I finished this compelling travelogue weeks ago, but put off writing a review as I didn't want to acknowledge that this would be the last journey I'd ever get to take with the late Tony Horwitz as my guide. My enjoyment of this crazy, wild ride through the contemporary south was tinged with sadness that this kind, compassionate, and talented writer passed away so early and unexpectedly. ...more

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Mar 28, 2020 Nikki rated it really liked it

Shelves: america, non-fiction

My heart wants to give this book 5 stars because it had only just been published when Tony Horwitz died unexpectedly last year, but I'll try to put my sentimental feelings to one side and comment on the books's actual contents.

As you'd expect from Horwitz, this is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part social commentary, in this case focused on his attempts to retrace the journeys of Central Park landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. (In the 1850s, Olmsted made a series of journeys My heart wants to give this book 5 stars because it had only just been published when Tony Horwitz died unexpectedly last year, but I'll try to put my sentimental feelings to one side and comment on the books's actual contents.

As you'd expect from Horwitz, this is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part social commentary, in this case focused on his attempts to retrace the journeys of Central Park landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. (In the 1850s, Olmsted made a series of journeys across the US South, describing what he saw in a series of letters published in the New York Times in the rather optimistic hope that his nonpartisan firsthand reporting would "promote the mutual understanding of North and South".)

Sections of this are highly amusing, such as Horwitz's ill-fated mule expedition in Texas Hill Country, or his experiences at the 'Louisiana Mudfest' (a family festival of ATVs, mud, and moonshine). Others are more reflective and somber - I was particularly struck by a passage about Angola, the country's largest maximum-security prison ("a plantation that still relied on forced labor, much of it performed by the descendants of slaves."), and by Horwitz's visit to Colfax, Louisiana, whose cemetary contains a monument to three "heroes" who fell "fighting for white supremacy" in a vicious massacre of black men that the official state historical marker still labels a "Riot" which "marked the end of carpetbag misrule". Although I've mentioned Louisiana repeatedly, much of the book focuses on Texas, an area that even in Olmsted's time was "a crucible of the nation's escalating conflicts: over immigration, gun rights, religion, the environment, and other hot-button issues."

I did thoroughly enjoy reading this book, but - perhaps because I came to it with greater prior knowledge of the US and its history? - it didn't have as much impact on me as Confederates in the Attic. (Here's a blog post I wrote after Tony Horwitz's death about the way that book shaped my thinking.) ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was a terrific book and I am so sorry that it was his last. I love travel books like "Travels with Charley" by Steinbeck and "Blue Highways" by William Heat Moon and this book was similar to those. However the addition of his travels tracing the journey made by Frederick Law Olmsted as an undercover correspondent for the New York Tmes 160 years previously made a wonderful contrast and added a lot of history. I learned a lot as an armchair traveler! I fortunately still have books to read by ...more

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Jun 19, 2020 Julie M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Sara

Shelves: historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 02, 2019 Scott Leffler rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The only thing bad about this book, his last. Tony Horwitz died 5-27-19.
All of his books are highly recommended.

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Oct 05, 2020 Walker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What a piece of writing. I’d be hard pressed to think of a book more tailor-made for my interests. Ever since being introduced to George Plimpton’s participatory journalism, I’ve loved the genre, seeking out books that offer a sense of place, a willingness to push boundaries into unknown situations, or in this case, “a mix of travel, journalism, history and memory.” Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of Central Park, once journeyed through the South in the 1850s as a NYT correspondent, and this bo ...more

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May 22, 2019 Kelly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I always love a good road trip with Tony Horwitz. However, the title of this book is a little deceptive, because it is only about half about the South. Or at least about the Deep South.

Horwitz follows the route of New England native Frederick Law Olmstead from West Virginia to Mexico. There is a good bit about West Virginia to start (which is only sort of the south, in my opinion), with some briefer travels in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Then the last third of the book is ab ...more

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May 15, 2020 Kathie Harper rated it liked it

In all honesty, I struggled with this book, wondering if I was ever going to finish. My husband only
made it half way through. We both thought it would resonate with us as we took a similar trip through
Mississippi last year. The idea was inspiring, following Frederick Law Olmsted's trips through the South in the mid 1800's. Some parts were interesting when the author felt invested and engaged like the trip down the Mississippi on the Riverboat Queen. His observations were sharp and funny. Then ot ...more

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Sep 06, 2019 Sandi Banks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I feel very sad that Tony Horwitz recently died too soon at 60 years old. I was anxious to read this book because I have liked others he has written. Others books he has written include Blue Latitudes and Confederates in the Attic. I give it 4.5. Horwitz followed part of the journey Frederick Olmsted the designer of Central Park, as young man prior to the Civil War.
It was an ambitious project to follow Olmsted “footsteps” as much over 150 years later. Horwitz has some real challenges and mishap ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, library_books, history, travel

Want to say at the outset that I read much of the book several weeks ago, coming back to it for the last few chapters recently. So, I don't have a lot of specific recollection here.

Horwitz does a great job integrating Olmstead's historical observations with his own modern ones. His tagging along on river boats today hauling coal gave an insight into American society not easily available to non-locals. Likewise, it was quite interesting getting the non-white points-of-view during the Mississippi ...more

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Oct 13, 2019 Fred Forbes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have read a number of Tony's works over the years, found him to be an informative and entertaining journalist. Sad to note that my purchase of this one was triggered by news of his death at age 60 due to cardiac arrest in MD near where I grew up. He was there to speak at "Politics and Prose" one of my favorite bookstores. Doubly depressing to see authors pass away at an early age as they achieve notable success like Vince Flynn (Mitch Rapp series) and Stieg Larsson (Girl with the Dragon Tatoo) ...more

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Jul 28, 2019 Mel Travis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I learned so much about Frederick Law Olmsted from this book. It was interesting and also terrifying seeing the similarities between pre Civil War south and our country today.

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About Tony Horwitz

Tony Horwitz

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Date of Birth: 1958

Tony Horwitz was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author whose books include Blue Latitudes, Confederates In The Attic and Baghdad Without A Map. His most recent work, published in May 2019, is Spying on the South, which follows Frederick Law Olmsted's travels from the Potomac to the Rio Grande as an undercover correspondent in the 1850s.
Tony was also president of the S ...more

Books by Tony Horwitz

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War

Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

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“These westbound pioneers slogged through the morass on foot, or in wagons drawn by mules and oxen. Impossible for them to conceive that their mud march would one day become sport for modern Americans,” — 0 likes

“No way can be found in this boasted land of civilization and Christianity to punish the perpetrators of this bloody and monstrous Crime,” Grant lamented of Colfax. “The spirit of hatred and violence is stronger than law.” — 0 likes

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