Historian Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts how he came to discover the real John Henry, an African-American railroad worker who became a legend in the famous song.

"A wry and humorous take on life and culture in the American South In thinking about her native land, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, "It's the juxtapositions that get you down here." These juxtapositions are, for Julia, the soul of the South and in her warmhearted and funny new book, South Toward Home, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life--the Delta hot tamale festival,...