Book Review -- Spying on the South

Spying on the South : An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz Horwitz traces the route of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s trek through the south in the 1850s on the eve of the Civil War. Olmsted’s dispatches on slavery, its defenders, and cotton as king appeared in the New York Times. Horwitz’s observations, dovetailed with those of Olmsted, are insightful and sometimes painful as he looks at many things that have changed and many that have not. He chronicles a cultural divide that was present in the antebellum period and is often here today. Many of the parallels are funny and others are striking. An important book for our particular point in history. Olmsted went on to become America’s most famous landscape architect. As in Central Park famous. Horwitz is also the author of Confederates in the Attic. He died just after this book was published. I will miss his writing. Carol Lloyd is the Director of the Churchill County Library and is thrilled to be judging the 4^th of July parade in Fallon.       Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices. Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon.