Romances of the White Man's Burden: Race, Empire, and the Plantation in American Literature, 1880-1936 by Jeremy Wells (review)

In all, Wells carefully examines the arc of the idea of the Southern plantation and its signification, "cultural forms that have not gone away" (184). He brightens his scintillating close readings and crisp arguments through lively prose, including phrases such as "Dixon was a blood freak" (117).