Let's talk about secession.
Not exactly the most suitable cocktail party conversation starter anywhere in the country, but take that notion deep into the heart of Dixie and you might find yourself running from the possum-hunting conservatives, trailer-park lifers, and prayer warriors Chuck Thompson encountered during the two years he spent traveling the American South asking the question: Would we be better off without 'em?
The result is a heavily researched, serious inquiry into national divides which is unabashedly controversial, often uproarious, and always thought-provoking. From a church service in Mobile, Alabama, where the gospel entertainer announces "Islam is upon us!" to a store selling Ku Klux Klan memorabilia on a quaint little street in South Carolina--Thompson lifts the green velvet drapes on a South that would seem to belong more to the time of Rhett and Scarlett than the dawn of the twenty-first century.
By crunching numbers, interviewing experts, and roaming the not-so-former Confederacy, Thompson--an openly disgruntled liberal from the Northwest--makes a compelling case for southern secession. What would the new nations look like if Virginia governor Bob McDonnell was elected as the first President of the Confederate States of America? If a southern electorate was left to fend for itself while the North did damage control on an economy decimated by cut-rate southern workers who operate as a rival nation within its own borders? If the BCS championship football game were replaced by a North vs. South Coca Cola/ Starbucks Blood Bowl(TM)? If Florida went to the South and Texas to the North in the most complex land-and-population grab in American history?
Better Off Without 'Em is a deliberately provocative book whose insight, humor, fierce and fearless politics, and sheer nerve will spark a national debate that is perhaps long overdue.
About the Author
Chuck Thompson is the author of several books, including the comic travel memoirs Smile When You’re Lying and To Hellholes and Back. His writing and photography have appeared in numerous publications, including Outside, Men’s Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and Maxim.
Praise for Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession…
“Often thoughtful, always irreverent . . . a raucous road trip
through the South with a funny, informed, sardonic and opinionated
Yankee.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Thank you for the copy of Better Off Without ‘Em, but I'm afraid it's New York and San Francisco that I think should secede.”—P.J. O’Rourke
“Fry yourself some grits, unfurl that Confederate flag, and read this
gem of a book. Chuck Thompson doesn’t have a politically correct bone in
his Yankee body. He skewers the South mercilessly, and hilariously. And
backs up his barbs with facts. Lots of facts. Better Off Without ‘Em is sure to set hearts racing, on both sides of the Mason Dixon line.”—Eric Weiner, New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss