and seated next to him is jon sensbach. he teaches early american history at the university of florida and drove up here from gainesville to join us. so we're very grateful to you, john, for being here tonight. okay. and lastly, on the end we have scott nelson, who is georgia athletic association professor of at the university of georgia drove over from athens today. thank you for being here with us today. scott thanks so much for having me, claire. so like i said, this book covers a lot of ground. it goes back several thousand, actually, and takes us up pretty close to the present. so it truly is a comprehensive history of the south. but with so many contributor, with so much ground to cover, i thought we would start with just the basic question to the editor, and that is how did this project initially come about? well, it came when an editor from the university of north carolina press came to me two decades ago. and suggested that it was time to have an interpretive history of the american south. and i was keen to do it.