The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture was developed by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. Contributors to the volume include historians, literary critics, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, linguists, theologians, folklorists, architects, ecologists, lawyers, university presidents, newspaper reporters, magazine writers and novelists.

An instant hit when it was published in 1989, the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture is “the first attempt ever” notes U.S. News & World Report, “to describe every aspect of a region’s life and thought, the impact of its history and policies, its music and literature, its manners and myths, even the iced tea that washes down its catfish and cornbread.” The Encyclopedia, a ten-year project involving more than 800 scholars and writers, offers an extraordinary portrait of one of the nation’s richest cultural landscapes and it features 349 illustrations and 15 maps.

To foster a deeper understanding of the South’s cultural patterns, the editors (Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris) have organized this reference book around twenty-four thematic sections, including history, religion, folklore, language, art and architecture, recreation, politics, the mythic South, urbanization, literature, music, violence, law, and media.

The life experiences of southerners are discussed in sections on black life, ethnic life, and women’s life. Throughout, the broad goal is to identify the forces that have supported either the reality or the illusion of the southern way of life—people, places, ideas, institutions, events, symbols, rituals, and values.

Alex Haley contributed to the 1989 edition of Encyclopedia of Southern Culture by writing the foreword.