Overview

""As if Kevin Phillips's American Theocracy were being narrated by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi,"" Chuck Thompson's ""viciously funny and thoroughly tasteless"" examination of Southern secession was one of the most controversial books of the year (Washington Monthly). Chuck Thompson--dubbed ""savagely funny"" by the New York Times and ""wickedly entertaining"" by the San Francisco Chronicle--spent two years traveling the American South to determine whether, as he'd long suspected but not yet proven, the whole country might be better off letting Dixieland make good on its two-hundred-years-old threat to secede. The result is a long overdue and serious inquiry into national divides that is deliberately provocative and uproariously funny while making a compelling case for ""a kind of no-fault divorce for nation-states: no hard feelings, just two adults who can't quite make the relationship work, shaking hands and walking away"" (The Oxford American).

Full Product Details

9781451616668

Table of Contents

Reviews

Hilariously over-the-top . . . Thompson's mix of vitriol, bewilderment, humor, and research holds the seemingly disparate elements together and makes for an entertaining, if absurdly hyperbolic, read. . . . Thought-provoking.

Fry yourself some grits, unfurl that Confederate flag, and read this gem of a book. Chuck Thompson doesn't have a politically correct bone in his Yankee body. He skewers the South mercilessly, and hilariously. And backs up his barbs with facts. Lots of facts. Better Off Without 'Em is sure to set hearts racing, on both sides of the Mason Dixon line. --Eric Weiner New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss

Author Information

Chuck Thompson is the author of the widely reviewed political screed Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession, as well as the comic memoirs Smile When You're Lying and To Hellholes and Back. His writing has appeared in Outside, Politico, Esquire, Men's Journal, The New Republic, and many other publications.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available