The Mason and Dixon line marks a physical boundary, but beyond geographic location, what is the US South? Did its swamps spontaneously produce the blues? Did bluegrass music arise magically from the hills? What does the history of slavery in the US South have to do with the emergence of country music, R & B, or Soul? How did Gone With The Wind recreate the plantation myth for global audiences? In this course, we will examine the South in its cultural and historical incarnations to examine how it both generated and was generated by economic, technological, and political factors. Through textual and data driven analysis, we will come to understand how the South can be simultaneously the birthplace of rock and roll and the origin of the “Southern Strategy” — at once the seat of American authenticity and origin of Coca Cola, America’s first global brand.