Industries That Revolutionized the South

This session will trace two industries that have shaped the South’s economy, landscape, and labor practices. Haisten Willis’s A Legacy in Peanuts: Tom’s Foods and the Transformation of the Twentieth-Century South tells the story of Tom’s Foods, a company based in Columbus, Georgia, that played a major role in establishing the peanut as a cash crop. Jessica I. Elfenbein, coeditor of Wood Basket of the World: Lumbering, Commerce, and Conservation in South Carolina’s Forests, will share how South Carolina became central to the global timber economy. These two books explore the intersection of the industry, people, and culture of the South. This is a must-attend session for anyone interested in business and history!  

Purchase your book from Charis Books & More. When you check-out from that link, please mention that you will need to pick your book up at the event. Books will also be for sale on-site by Charis, and a portion of your purchase will benefit the Decatur Book Festival.

This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, and seating is first come, first served. Signing information: Signing time: 1:15 PM

Signing location: Marriott Conference Center

About the Authors

Jessica I. Elfenbein is professor of history at the University of South Carolina and an award-winning public historian. She is the principal investigator for the ongoing, multifaceted "Wood Basket of the World" project. She joins us with her book Wood Basket of the World: Lumbering, Commerce, and Conservation in South Carolina's Forests.

Haisten Willis was born in Columbus, Georgia, and grew up hearing a lot about Tom’s Foods—no fewer than nine of his relatives worked there at one time or another. Later, he spent summers riding in a Tom’s delivery truck and learning the business from his dad. Willis is a journalist who has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and the Washington Examiner. He is the editor of Commonplace magazine and works in Washington, DC. He joins us with his book A Legacy in Peanuts: Tom's Foods and the Transformation of the Twentieth-Century South.

Moderator

Chuck Reece Chuck Reece is the editor-in-chief of Salvation South, a weekly digital magazine that presents the work of Southern storytellers—essayists, journalists, fiction writers, poets, photographers, and filmmakers. Salvation South focuses on the work of storytellers who address the American South in all its rich diversity—or tear down the myths of a monolithic, white region. Salvation South’s ranks of contributors range from

bestselling authors to Oscar-nominated filmmakers to poets laureate and young writers starting out.

Reece was the founding editor-in-chief of The Bitter Southerner, a publication launched in 2013. In 2014, he won the Southern Foodways Alliance’s John Egerton Prize, which “recognizes artists, writers, scholars, and others–including artisans and farmers and cooks—whose work, in the American South, addresses issues of race, class, gender, and social and environmental justice, through the lens of food.” After leaving The Bitter Southerner in July of 2020, Reece joined his wife, Stacy Reece, in her home-goods business, Down South House & Home. In 2021, he won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Podcast/Large Market, for his work on The Bitter Southerner Podcast, which he wrote and hosted for two seasons. In November 2021, the Reeces together launched Salvation South. Since 2022, Chuck has returned to the world of radio and podcasting with the Salvation South Podcast. The podcast has two components: first, Reece’s weekly Morning Edition and All Things Considered commentaries for Georgia Public Broadcasting’s twenty station radio network of National Public Radio affiliates, and, second, monthly 30- to 45-minute audio magazine stories or in-depth interviews under the title Salvation South Deluxe.