Jordan County: Going Back to the Roots

Overview & Synopsis

This essay bears on Shelby Foote's fifth book, Jordan County, both the tale of a place and a tell-tale place, a territory through which a crucial quest unfolds : the quest for the Origins and Truth. Although its seven narratives can be read as independent slices of life and history, they are “tied in” and represent as many stages in the search that motivates the narrative whose objective is to show how the South, “a geographical paradise (a pastoral space), was turned into hell by history (a long record of spoliations).” Foote's story cycle debunks the pastoral of the New World and brings to light its “founding crimes”.