Editor Anthony Dunbar has assembled essays from 12 leading Southern historians, activists, civil rights attorneys, law professors, and theologians to discuss militarism, religion, the environment, voting rights, the Patriot Act, the economy, prisons and crime, and other subjects. The writers share the beliefs that the current policies of our national administration sacrifice the interests of the poor and the people who work for a living to the interests of a privileged elite, that the power of money and the military must be tethered, that the natural environment must be sheltered, and that racial justice matters. A common sentiment is dismay at the deepening chasm that now divides America—and specifically the South—into hostile armies whose leaders are fast losing whatever motivation they ever had to pursue compromise and cooperation, and the common good. The essayists are Leslie Dunbar, Paul Gaston, John Egerton, Janisse Ray, Dan Pollitt, Connie Curry, Laughlin McDonald, Sheldon Hackney, Susan Wiltshire, Gene Nichol, Dan Carter, and Charles Bussey.