Killers of the Dream

This book offers perhaps the most profound and yet concise explanation of the origins of 'white supremacy' -- as a concept, a practice, and even a legal framework at one time in our country. She has taken an extremely complicated issue and presented it in a way that is easy to follow, makes a great......more

hey guys first review!!!! just finished this book and it’s one of the best books i’ve read in a really long time. it’s an autobiographical account of Lillian Smith’s life. it was published in 1949, so even though America looked very different then, the core themes of the book are still prominent. she......more

Every southerner (and that certainly holds a facet of my identity) should read this book. Only thing holding it back from 5 stars was the first section was painful to read- her style took some getting used to. But overall, loved the back 3/4s of this book. Much food for thought......more

This book is brilliant, timeless, and forward thinking while also being dated, arrogant, and white. I gave it a four because the language is poetic, and Smith's insights are mostly radical. It reads like autoethnography, with Smith sometimes deeply embedded in the narrative and accountable in her pr......more

Just an amazing explication of the connections between segregation, Southern religion, and Southern identity. Gets a little too Freudian at times and becomes kind of a rallying cry near the end, in ways that made me feel like I was being talked down to. But I’m also not her specific audience of the......more