This new bibliography provides scholars and students with a comprehensive reference guide to the literature on southern cities. Brown accepts the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of southern as including the District of Columbia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Her definition of urban is much broader and more comprehensive so as to include American Indian settlements, ethnic communities, ghost towns, and other combinations of people and buildings. The book brings together material from many disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, the arts, and humanities. Items cited include professional journals, books, theses, and dissertations.

The bibliography is divided into three sections by type of literature covered. Each section is in turn divided into broad subject categories. The individual entries are numbered and cross-referenced by subject, and are also included in a geographical index. Research libraries, southern college libraries, public libraries in larger southern cities, and southern city and state historical societies will want to acquire this unique bibliography for their reference collections.