All Over the Map

Edward L. Ayers is Hugh P. Kelly Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. Patricia Nelson Limerick is professor of history at the University of Colorado. Stephen Nissenbaum is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts. Peter S. Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia.

The book is not meant to offer a comprehensive look at the nation's regional characteristics; most valuable is what each scholar contributes to notions of place, identity, and memory... Most important, the authors seek to overturn the popular misconception that each locale was, at one time, at its most pristine and authentic moment, while modern life has been threatening this historical distinctiveness ever since. -- Christina Rabe Seger Southern Historian The four brilliant essays here, in a little more than a hundred pages, will challenge any reader's regional stereotypes... this book is a learning experience for scholars as well as for a wider audience. Phi Beta Kappa Key Reporter Due to the nature of their assignment, historians who deliver lectures in a distinguished series are often reacquired either to survey old ground that has been covered more thoroughly in larger monographs or venture into new territory that cannot be examined fully in the time available. Even so, such lectures can be framed in creative ways that enrich understanding, stimulate fresh thought, and point the way to fertile ground for additional research on important issues. [This] well-written [volume] of lectures [meets] those standards. [It represents its] genre at its best and [is a] welcome [addition] to the literature on American regions. -- Winfred B. Moore, Jr. North Carolina Historical Review