Winner of the 1994 Virginia C. Ledbetter Prize, this collection of wide-ranging essays is the first collaborative work to focus exclusively on the living and historical contradictions of the Arkansas portion of the Mississippi River delta. Individual chapters deal with the French and Spanish colonial experience; the impact of the Civil War, the roles of African Americans, women, and various ethnic groups; and the changes that have occurred in towns, in social life, and in agriculture. What emerges is a rich tapestry—a land of black and white, of wealth and poverty, of progress and stasis, f despair and hope—through which all that is dear and terrible about this often overlooked region of the South is revealed.
The Arkansas Delta
$32.95
Land of Paradox
Edited by Jeannie Whayne and Willard B. Gatewood
978-1-55728-465-5 (paper)
336 pages
December 1993
1994 Virginia C. Ledbetter Prize
“A worthwhile contribution to the literature of the Mississippi River delta, these ten essays provide a fresh and overdue focus on Arkansas, which has usually been overshadowed by Louisiana and Mississippi in studies of the region, and will enlighten and entertain both scholars and laypersons. Among the topics are geography, social history, civil war, ethnicity, rural and urban experiences, and the unique problems of women and African Americans.”
—Tom Forgey, The Journal of Southern History, February 1995
“This collection of ten essays on the Delta region of Arkansas is richly researched and stimulating. … The Arkansas Delta provides the reader with excellent maps, tables, and photographs. This work will be of value to both scholars and the larger society.”
—LeRoy T. Williams, The Journal of American History, December 1994
“The Arkansas Delta mainly serves to enrich the historical vision through example and detail. The book amply meets two goals presented by its editors: to provide material that will engender greater analysis of the role of Arkansas in studies of the Southern frontier and to paint the Arkansas Delta as the embodiment of dichotomous characteristics defining a distinctive South.”
—The Southern Register
