Spying on the South

I've wanted to read Tony Horwitz's new book Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide since the moment I heard about it this spring. In the book, Horwitz – who sadly died soon after the book's release – sets out to retrace the southerly route of correspondent-turned-landscape-architect Frederick Law Olmsted (Katie's distant relative!), to see what he might discover about our country 150 years later.

Like Olmsted, Horwitz travels by train, a coal barge, and a mule through places with names like Cumberland, Eagle Pass, and Natchitoches (not to be confused with Nacogdoches, though he stops there too). Unlike Olmsted, who traveled incognito through the antebellum South and wrote under a pseudonym, Horwitz is open about his project with those he meets.

At times he does pass judgment (looking at you, KKK) but mostly Horwitz listens and learns, rather humbly in my estimation. He meets a fair share of "interesting" characters, as one might expect, and he describes their quirks in entertaining detail, as one would hope. More often than not, though, he leaves a place praising the warmth and generous hospitality of those he encounters.