Diehard Rebels

This week on Cover to Cover:

Jason Phillips persuasively answers a Civil War mystery: Why did so many Confederates doggedly keep fighting when any rational observer would have recognized looming defeat? Examining a most impressive array of sources, particularly soldiers' letters and diary entries from 1863 to 1865, Phillips explores how religious faith, cheerleading propaganda, admiration of the officer class, hatred of Yankees, military discipline, bonding in the ranks, and stubborn denial of the obvious were all factors. Phillips eloquently and poignantly recounts the deprivations and sacrifices that were endured by Confederate diehards in vain hope of eventual victory and the haunting legacy of that resistance for all Southerners, black and white, over the next 100 years. Interview is by Southern Lit Cadre member and Georgia Historical Society Major Domo Dr. Stan Deaton.

The Art of Keeping Secrets

Southern writer Patti Callahan Henry takes her first dip into writing mystery in her new novel The Art of Keeping Secrets. Its the story of a widowed woman who uncovers a secret about her husband that turns everything she believes on its head. Callahan-Henry reveals the power secrets can have in our lives as her characters walk the gossamer line between betrayal and trust. Join Melissa Stiers on Cover to Cover this Sunday for a conversation with the author that delves into this mysterious tale and uncovers the idiosyncrasies of Callahan Henrys own writing life.

New Georgia Encyclopedia

How does one put together an encyclopedia from scratch? John Inscoe, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, faced that tall order and succeeded admirably. Inscoe is the general editor of the New Georgia Encyclopedia, an online publication that is a treasure trove of information on all things Georgia-related, from history to politics to Nascar . The NGE is a project of the Georgia Humanities Council in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, the Office of the Governor, and the Technical College System of Georgia. In this interview, Inscoe talks about the challenges of riding herd on all the information, the wide array of subjects covered, what got in and what didn't, and the future of the printed book in the digital age.

Join Emory Mulling this Sunday at 8:00PM on Cover to Cover to learn more about this powerful new educational tool. Only on GPB Radio (and online too!).

8,186,453 People

...within 57,906 sq. miles makes Georgia the 10th most populous state and 24th largest in land mass. These quick facts are among a smörgåsbord of knowledge found at The New Georgia Encyclopedia. This week on Cover to Cover, host Stan Deaton, speaks on this fantastic resource for history, georgraphical info, and simple trivia about our Peach State. Tune in this Sunday at 8:00PM on GPB. Click here to listen from the comfort of your computer.

Salman Rushdie and "The Enchantress of Florence"

Join host Rickey Bevington for a very special edition of GPB’s literary show, Cover To Cover on Sunday, August 3^rd at 8PM for a conversation with Salman Rushdie about his latest novel, “The Enchantress of Florence,” as well as his recent work for Emory University and the housing of his archives there.

The Confessions of "Crazy Cooter"

GPB Southern Lit Cadre member, Frank Reiss provides commentary on his interview with Congressman, Author, Actor, Entrepreneur Ben Jones, which airs Sunday at 8pm on Cover To Cover:

As I told former Congressman Ben Jones when I met him before our interview, he was my representative when I moved back to my hometown of Atlanta in 1989. "Surprise," he chuckled, at the thought of this famously crazy redneck being a congressman.

But having missed the entire run of The Dukes of Hazzard, the hit television show which made him famous, I hadn't appreciated what an unusual political figure he was at the time.

After reading his highly entertaining memoir, Redneck Boy in the Promised Land, and talking to him for "Cover to Cover," it's impossible not to recognize his many gifts. I half-jokingly asked him during the interview if he would consider being Barack Obama's running-mate to be the ticket balance the young liberal from Chicago might need: an older, more traditional Democrat with an authentic Southern twang. The truth is, it's a little too late in Jones' life to take such a suggestion seriously. And because he threw away so many years to alcoholism (which he details in his book) Jones' political career started too late for him to go as far as he might have. Plus, it came along right as the Republicans were about to make it a lot harder than it had ever been for a Democrat to get elected in the Deep South.

Jones is the real deal, though. A man who grew up in dire poverty, he understands and champions the plight of working people. A man who nearly drank himself to death by his mid-30s but who sobered up to have not just one, but two successful careers, he is intimately familiar with both ends of the American Dream. And a man who takes his craft of acting seriously enough to proudly embrace the easy-to-mock role and show that made his career. In fact, because of the show's ongoing popularity, Jones is now enjoying a third career as an entrepeneur, having created the wildly successful" Dukesfest" and also "Cooter's Place," a Dukes of Hazzard emporium in Nashville and Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

He's a great talker. Enjoy listening.

Frank Reiss' interview airs this Sunday on Cover to Cover at 8:00PM on GPB Radio.

Elizabeth Payne Rosen's Hallam's War, Sunday at 8pm on Cover To Cover

Elizabeth Payne Rosen joins Cover To Cover this week for a discussion about her debut novel Hallam's War. Hallam's War is the story of Hugh and Serena Hallam, who try to make a life for themselves running a cotton plantation in West Tennessee in the years leading up to the Civil War. The choices that they make, and the forces setting about the war is the grist for Rosen's long narrative about the dying days of the slave system and the difference between "good" Southerners and "bad" Southerners.

Author Rosen grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana and has lived in England and now Marin County, California, where she works as an Episcopal Chaplain in a hospital. She became fascinated by the Civil War relatively later in life, and has turned that fascination into a tightly focused look at a handful of characters as they transit from the ante-bellum era into a hellish war world that includes privation, runaway slaves, battles at Shiloh and South Mountain, and the awful confines of a makeshift Confederate hospital in Richmond during the dying days of the War Between The States. Characters intermingle with Civil War era figures including General Albert Sydney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Mary Chesnut.

Elizabeth Payne Rosen creates realistic characters and plausible dialogue as she wrestles with the notion of Southerners who tried to come to terms with their slave economy and the coming of war. In our Cover To Cover interview she takes the topics of how challenging it is to write 'slave' dialogue, how many events to put into one novel and keep it plausible, and her fascinating research visit with distant cousin Shelby Foote.

We encourage you to consider Hallam's War for your nightstand, and we hope you'll listen to this week's Edition of Cover To Cover, Sunday night at 8pm.