South to America is excellent in every way. Imani Perry’s brilliant use of lyrical language paints vivid vistas in your mind of the South that are both beautiful and gut wrenching. Most importantly she reminds us that the very definition of what constitutes the South is limited compared to how global and reaching it is on the United States mainland. That said she goes about covering every side of the conversation about race in America with grace and academic integrity. While also demonstrating again and again the revisionist history that is the foundation of the idea of American Exceptionalism. The history we are taught is at best murky and Perry challenges the bigoted portrayal of Black people in America. Along the way she shows how moral inconsistencies abound. Even in the hardest moments to swallow Perry demonstrates how blood, migratory patterns, and economic engines bind, or more aptly make indebted, the North to the South. Even yet, the South, and Black America, goes unthanked for its deep and lasting cultural impacts on the broader American culture. Beyond the history we get candid personal anecdotes and interviews that show how the the macro civil rights movement impacts individual outcomes. The personal touch makes this book read at times like a love story to Black America and at others a warning. The praise highlighting the ways in which Black culture is distinct and has shaped the broader American culture. The warning is a reminder of the traps, imposed and self-inflicted, that hold us back. This book should find a home comfortably in between Heather McGee’s “The Sum of Us” and Isabelle Wilkerson’s “Caste” on most book shelves.