Overview

First published in 1956, Segregation is a collection of Robert Penn Warren's informal conversations with southerners in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Warren, who in his own writings often explored the theme of race in American life, traveled through his native region to talk with scores of individuals—taxi drivers, NAACP leaders, members of White Citizens groups, college students, preachers—to report their responses to the Court's decision.

Full Product Details

9780820316703

Table of Contents

Reviews

It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown. -- Catholic World

Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is. --New York Times Book Review It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown. --Catholic World

Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is. It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown.

Kentucky born poet, novelist, journalist, Pulitzer prize winner, Robert Penn Warren will be listened to as the average Northerner with comparable acceptance would not. And what has he to contribute? He went back to the Deep South; he talked to Negroes, to whites, on both sides of the issue. He listened, with understanding of the deep inner splits that made kindly men turn bitter and violent, in opposition to what they felt was happening, was going to happen. He comes up with no conclusions, but somehow what he has to report clears some away of the cobwebs. One begins to see that for the most part, the aggressive opponents of desegregation do not represent the better element , but that those who know in their hearts that it will come , prefer to stand aside than to fight on either side. One feels that Warren himself accepts the difficulties as a tragic slowing down process, possibly even a set-back to what might have come anyhow, but feels that the creeping progress goes on. And he recognizes- as he turns North-a vast sense of relief at escape from responsibility, from the divisiveness that characterizes the Southerner. (Kirkus Reviews)

Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is. -- New York Times Book Review It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown. -- Catholic World It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown.--Catholic World Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is.--New York Times Book Review It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown.-- Catholic World Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is.-- New York Times Book Review

It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown. -- Catholic World Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is. -- New York Times Book Review It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown. --Catholic World Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is. --New York Times Book Review It is doubtful that any other book has brought so sharply into focus the impact on the South of the court's action. Here the region's fears and hatreds stand out in vivid relief, as well as its nostalgic desires to maintain the best of its traditions in the face of indisputable, unaccepted knowledge that the past has irrevocably flown.-- Catholic World Robert Penn Warren has done an admirable and moving piece. . . . To sensitive Southerners who read the book it will sound almost like a cry of anguish, as indeed it is.-- New York Times Book Review

Author Information

ROBERT PENN WARREN (1905–1989), America's first poet laureate, was the author of ten novels and sixteen volumes of poetry, as well as several works of nonfiction. His awards were numerous—three Pulitzer prizes, the Bollinger Prize, the National Book Award, a fellowship prize from the MacArthur Foundation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available