THE PEOPLE: The Spirit of The South

It is a lion of prides, a place apart. It is the last American arena with a special, nurtured identity, its own sometimes unfashionable regard for the soil, for family ties, for the authority of God and country. Despite the influx of outsiders, the South remains a redoubt of old American tenets, enshrined for centuries by the citizenry.

Much has been changed by technology—notably the spread of the television set and the air conditioner. The South, nourished in isolation, now imports and exports ideas with the speed of electrons. The gospel songs...