This engagingly-written survey examines the changes and constants of Southern culture. Always with a keen eye and sharp wit, Daniel stresses the diversity of Southern life, which includes not only regional variations but also divisions between black and white, male and female, rural and urban. From "separate but equal" to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s and its legacy, "Standing at the Crossroads" explores the extraordinary changes that transformed the South. Daniel takes the reader through a variety of topics that relate directly to the Southern experience: rural life, violence, music, literature, civil rights, unionism, urbanization, xenophobia, migration, religion, cockfighting, and stock car racing.

Pete Daniel is curator of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. His books include The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South, 1901-1969 and Breaking the Land: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures since 1880.