Georgia Odyssey

Preface

Preface cousin luther cobb was, by all accounts, a perpetually irascible and disgruntled sort, known to complain in wet weather that the rabbits were “miring up in the woods” and in dry weather that his children would “never see rain again.” As family legend has it, one day during an especially long dry spell, Cousin Luther was bemoaning the sad state of his cotton crop to his brother James. Taking his brother into the field, Luther declared, “Jimmy, I believe I’ve got the sorriest cotton in Hart County!” Wary of his brother’s mercurial temperament, James made no comment. Luther persisted, however, demanding that James admit that his cotton was the worst he’d ever seen. Seeing that Luther would not relent, James finally responded, “Well, Luther, I’ll have to agree with you. It’s pretty sorry alright.” “By God,” Luther spat back, “It’s better than any you got!” I love this story not only because it reminds me of the kind of people I come from but also because it illustrates the way a lot of Georgians, including me, have felt about our state over the years. We may voice any number of complaints about it, but others who do the same had best tread lightly in our presence, especially if their criticisms are based on fleeting, impressionistic glimpses from afar rather than up-close and personal experience. My attitude toward Georgia does not amount to the love-hate relationship traditionally associated with the great southern writers upon whose company I can surely make no claim. It does, however, approximate the feelings expressed by perhaps the greatest of those writers, William Faulkner, who was able to love his backward and beleaguered state of Mississippi because he had come to understand that, in the case of one’s homeland, “you don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues but despite the faults.” Such love is unequivocal, but it is not uncritical; it manifests itself just as authentically in addressing the faults as in celebrating the virtues. A dozen years ago, I was given a chance to sort out my feelings for Georgia in the opening essay of the 1996 New Georgia Guide, an ambitious , comprehensive attempt to broaden, deepen, and most of all freshen the perception of Georgia offered in the old 1940 wpa (Works Progress Administration) guide to the state. The response to the essay was quite positive, leading Karen Orchard and the late Malcolm Call to propose that the University of Georgia Press publish the piece, expanded to cover the Olympic experience, as a book. The result was the first edition of Georgia Odyssey, which appeared in 1997. Ten years later, with the first edition in dwindling supply, Nicole Mitchell, Nancy Grayson, and Derek Krissoff of the University of Georgia Press asked me to present an updated version of my brief take on Georgia’s history and culture. What follows is my effort to do that in a way that I hope does justice to the facts without totally concealing my sometimes frustrated and disapproving but always deep and genuine affection for my home state. I am indebted to all the aforementioned persons for affording me this opportunity. I also want to express my thanks to John Inscoe for sharing his vast bibliographic knowledge, to Jason Manthorne for his swift and reliable research assistance, and to my wonderful wife, Lyra Cobb, for her clear and critical editorial eye. The prime mover behind the New Georgia Guide project that begat Georgia Odyssey was Dr. Thomas G. Dyer, now University Professor Emeritus and Vice viii Preface Preface ix President for Instruction Emeritus at the University of Georgia. In the courseofatrulydistinguishedcareer,Tomhasled,supported,sustained, and otherwise made possible more good things for the University of Georgia and the people of the state in general than anybody I know. In addition to his innumerable administrative contributions, he is also a scholar of great renown, whose writings include an acclaimed history of the University of Georgia and Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta, a pathbreaking study of a little-known or acknowledged Unionist community in Civil War Atlanta. On a personal note, I don’t know if there are truly no friends like old friends, but I do know that there are few friends of any vintage like Tom Dyer. We met as graduate students at the University of Georgia in 1972, and...