Winner Of The 2022 National Book Award For Nonfictioninstant New York Times Bestseller. "An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South and thus of America by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration. " - Isabel Wilkerson. An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand AmericaWe all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers- the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole. This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people.