A collection of essays, some autobiographical and some less so, about the American experience. The essays are extremely varied, touching on subjects such as politics, ethics, music, race, culture, and history. Topics include the KKK, Blind Lemon Jefferson, the NRA, baseball, JFK, and being a rich kid in a private school. Annotation c. by Book News,

Through these varied essays on politics, ethics, music, race, and culture Philip Martin admits a minor obsession with what he calls the American Frolic - the essential lack of seriousness with which many of us approach the questions inherent in living in a free society. He observes that Americans have been conditioned to react, not to consider; that while we are very good at ripostes and snappy comebacks, at cracking wise and looking smart, we often fail to authentically engage the issues with which we pretend to be most concerned. We inadvertently talk past one another, he says, resorting to...

The Artificial Southerner tracks the manifestations and ramifications of "Southern identity" -- the relationship among a self-conscious, invented regionalism, the real distinctiveness of Southern culture, and the influence of the South in America. In these essays columnist Philip Martin explores the region and those who have both fled and embraced it. He offers lyric portraits of Southerners real, imagined, and absentee: musicians (James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash), writers (Richard Ford, Eudora Welty), politicians (Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter). He also considers such topics as the...