This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Bottom line: This is a wonderful, beautifully written story that is refreshingly candid with none of the defensiveness and politically correct breast beating of many of the works of southern writers of recent years.

Percy's autobiogrpahy offers excellent insights into the heart and mind of those of his class (as close to an agricultural elite as this country has ever produced. But the best of this book is offered unconsciously, by accident or indirection.
If you're only going to read one book about the South, or about this elite, read John Barry's Rising Tide, a truly brilliant and magnificently-- almost breathtakingly-- written book. There you gte all of Percy's story plus more perspective and deeper understanding-- indeed, RT may even give you a deeper understanding of Percy than his autobuiography does.
If you're going to read 2 books on the South, then read RT and Mind of the South by Cash. Cash focuses more on the mindset of the rednecks, while Percy is very much an aristocrat. To a certain extent the Percy and Cash books complement each other. In fact, to Percy the word "anglo-saxon" was an insult. He considered himself descended from the Norman conquerors of the Anglo-saxons, and saw them as serfs. That little insight comes from Rising Tide.

Noble, refined, and distinctly tragic in sentiment, this book captures the proud soul of William Percy in eloquent prose. A man, in love with a vision of what is best in the world, in love with what is best in his fellow men, in love with what is best in his home emerges from these pages. He stands defiant in defense of the vision, despite all its imperfections, confident that its beauty outshines its faults. The book stands not only as a proud memorial to a noble vision that has passed into history, but a testimony to the beauty of the human spirit that continues to animate men to strive for nobility of life and the security virtues.

An excellent book written by William Steven Prince. The book is centered around Mr. Princes Uncle, Percy Stevens and the Troopship Tuscania. The book ends with the Goldstar Mothers pilgrimage to war graves in 1930. I recommend this book for anyone who had family aboard the Tuscania.

Crusade & Pilgrimage is a historically acurate account of the World War I troopship Tuscania which was torpedoed and sunk in the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland. The book is centered around Percy Stevens, a soldier in the 20th Engineers. Percy, perished the night the Tuscania went down. Crusade and Pilgrimage also touches base with the Gold Star Mothers pilgrimage to war cemeterys in Europe in 1930. I highly recommend this book for anyone who had family aboard the Tuscania. The many photos in this book helps illistrate the events as you progress through the book. Book was written by Percy Stevens nephew, William Steven Prince in 1986.

Physics in the 20th century has become something that even non-scientists know something about. Albert Einstein and some of the other greats have become household names, invoked almost as often as the names of deities. On the other hand, the purity and innocence of physics was forever changed by the development of the atomic bomb, causing a kind of dreadful fear of science in mainstream culture. C.P. Snow gives a wonderful picture of how it all came about, up to 1980. His anecdotes and personal sketches of the major figures read like short biographies of old friends. He shows how atomic weapons were developed, each step building on the previous ones, until the ultimate destruction became inevitable. He also writes of hope for the future: hope in new minds and new discoveries. The book is well-illustrated with black and white photographs and drawings and it is not too long to read in a couple of evenings.