Mission

The mission of the Southern Texts Society is to create knowledge about the development of southern thought and identity. It conceives of the south in terms of a cultural rather than a political geography, including writings that reflect on the staple colonies of British America (including the West Indies), the slave states (including those that did not join the confederacy), and the “global south” of the 21st century. The STS does not champion a particular view of southern intellectual history, but seeks to recover the fullness and complexity of debates in theology, natural history, politics, aesthetics, sociology, racial ideology, economics, and history. It operates with the profound conviction that inquiry into the history of southern thinking enables the self-understanding of the region and the appreciation of the complexity of national history.

The Southern Texts Society enriches understanding about southern thought and culture through its publication program. Because it takes seriously its mission to create knowledge, it has always been something fundamentally more profound than a reprint brand for books long reckoned classic or characteristic expressions of southern sensibility. Every title of the series strives to create a distinctive view of its featured author/authors. It recognizes that for most of the major intellects of the region, aside from “the founders,” there has never been a summary assessment or collection of publications. It aims to remedy that lack by recovering the writings of signal figures and clarifying their significance through editorial introductions and contextualizations.

Chartered in 1989 as a non-profit scholarly association, STS has generated two publishing series: its current book series with the University of Georgia Press

http://www.ugapress.uga.edu/PSTS.html

and ten volumes issued by the University of Virginia Press from 1995 to 2002

http://www.upress.virginia.edu/browse/series/southern_texts.html