Book review: ‘Alabama Getaway'

By Steve Weinberg

For the AJC

"Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie" by Allen Tullos, University of Georgia Press, 364 pages, $24.95 (paperback), $69.95 (hardcover)

Before Allen Tullos felt ready to write a searing book about his home state of Alabama, he needed to settle in Atlanta, where he teaches American studies at Emory University.

After those in the Alabama power structure digest Tullos’ “Alabama Getaway,” he might feel uncomfortable trying to go home again. On page after page, Tullos speaks truth to power.

“Alabama Getaway” is part expose, part satire, part lament, part grim humor, part valentine, part travelogue and part academic monograph with some difficult concepts and big words.

In the first of three sections, “Habits of Judgment,” Tullos tries to explain the twisted logic behind the state's “reflexive fundamentalism of religion, race, gender, economics and sexuality."

"Expressions of these fundamentalisms rely upon the punitive, upon male prerogative, defensiveness against criticism, anti-government animus, knee-jerk patriotism and ‘free-market’ capitalism,” he writes.

“Nowhere do persistent habits of judgment express themselves more destructively in Alabama -- and stand starkly convicted -- than in the punitive treatment of the jailed and imprisoned," Tullos writes. "More than a reminder of the state’s racist past, the disproportionate incarceration of young African-American men testifies to a failure to provide educational and occupational opportunity.”

In the second section, “Public Figures of Speech,” Tullos features George Wallace in a lead role among what he calls the “sequential oafs of office whose outrageous behavior has sustained the Heart of Dixie.”

The third section, “Stakes in the Heart of Dixie,” recounts valiant efforts by “black Alabamians to shape a political imaginary in opposition to the Heart of Dixie.”

The final chapter, in Tullos’ words, “assesses battles lost, won, and still unfolding in the struggle for social justice, and the effects these conflicts have had upon resolving the state’s knotty dilemmas and changing Alabama’s political imaginary.”

Residents of any state can ask a variation of the question posed by Tullos: “What makes Alabama Alabama?” Historians, sociologists, journalists and others grapple with such questions regularly.

Rarely, however, has any author tackled the question as effectively as has Tullos. He understands that his home state is a ready target. As Tullos notes, “It’s easy to make fun of a place where you can find ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ on the library’s how-to shelves.”

Tullos’ book is so insightful because it transcends the obvious targets.

Because Tullos grew up in Alabama, he can empathize even as he criticizes those who believe the state is unfairly maligned.

Tullos wants to believe in the learning curve of human nature. Yet he is pessimistic about Alabama. Yes, the state has attracted automobile manufacturing plants, thus mitigating unemployment in some areas. But offering expensive incentives to faraway manufacturers seems like a strange strategy to Tullos as he watches many of the most promising women and men leave the state.

Even to suggest that "boosting the state support for education on a scale approaching the incentives lavished on auto manufacturers would offer a surer way of allocating resources for the long-term good of Alabama’s citizens remains beyond the bounds of political discourse,” he says.

As a result, the exodus of brain power, the “Alabama getaway,” is quite likely to continue.

Author appearance

Allen Tullos signs copies of “Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie.” 2-3:30 p.m. April 9. Eagle Eye Bookshop, 2076 N. Decatur Road, Decatur. 404-486-0307.