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Article: Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Journal of Southern History
- Article date:
- August 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Southern Historical Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By James R. Goff Jr. (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, c. 2002. Pp. [xvi], 394. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-8078-5346-1; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8078-2681-2.)
In one way, southern gospel represents the favored music of a subset of a subculture in one U.S. region--the white working- and lower-middle-class, largely Pentecostal and Baptist, segment of southern evangelicalism. Even among people who find it unnecessary to add the word music to the expression southern gospel, it might be tempting to gainsay its importance in the broader scheme of U.S. and southern history.
James R. Goff Jr. demonstrates otherwise in Close Harmony. To him, ...