In "Natives and Newcomers," George Brown Tindall surveys the changes in the South's cultural and racial makeup over the past two centuries. Tindall discusses southern ethnicity in light of immigration laws and trends, attitudes toward immigrants, and economic and political forces that have changed the region's ethnic makeup from within (such as the Civil War) or without (such as Castro's rise to power in Cuba).

Tindall shows that the colonial South developed the most polyglot population in the English colonies, encompassing Indian tribes, Western Europeans, and West Africans. The...

In this richly suggestive overview, a noted historian illuminates the variety and vitality of southern religion by examining three major Protestant denominational families in the region: Baptists, "Christians" (for example, the Churches of Christ), and the "of God" groups (Pentecostals, among others). Ranging in coverage from the colonial period to the present, with special emphasis on the nineteenth century, Samuel S. Hill traces the growth and diversification of each of these groups as they have sloughed off old patterns, conventions, and constraints in their never-ending searches for...

Dylan Thomas's expressive, highly imaginative re-creation of forms and language intimately portrays his inner self and his time, earning him renown as one of the "great individualists of modern art." In this contemplative, focused study of poems, stories and other works by Thomas, including "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog" and "Under Milk Wood," Barbara Hardy emphasizes his creative achievements and high intelligence, analyzing his regional identity; response to other writers, especially James Joyce; modernist style; subject matter; use of language; and themes of art and the natural...